


Reminiscing in Hindsight

by Cat_184



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, M/M, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Time Travel, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:27:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23629213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cat_184/pseuds/Cat_184
Summary: A loose take on my other time travel fic but endgame compliant.Or Morgan screws up and drags herself and her brothers back to 2017. But things don't go to plan...So much for sightseeing.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Harley Keener & Nebula & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 37
Kudos: 242





	1. Morgan Fucks Up

Peter looked over from his work station at Morgan. At 12 she was already a mini genius working on her Stark watch, updating her software. 

Of the three 'Stark' kids, she was best at programing and retrieving old data. At 20 he had graduated from MIT with a bioengineering degree and a PhD in biochemistry. Three years later he and his long time boyfriend were sharing the role of head or R&D. His long time boyfriend and soon to be fiance (hopefully, he has a plan), Harley Keener. Harley was the resident engineer with masters in electrical engineering and advanced physics. Collectively they had a lot of brainpower at their disposal. There was yet to be a problem they couldn't solve. 

So when Morgan digs up the time travel spec's from FRIDAY's archives things were bound to go wrong.

* * *

Peter was working on his latest design for the filtration system in Harley's armour when it started. Iron Lad had been facing quite a few chemical weapons recently and the underwater transmission lines for the towers arc reactor were due to be replaced soon and Peter wanted his boy to be as safe as possible when he did.

His Stark watch vibrated from his wrist, flashing red.

Baby Monitor Protocol 

Baby don't Somethin' Stupid Alert

"EDITH show me what Lil miss is doing please." He asks his A.I. with a sigh. Morgan had been acting recklessly lately. He had been needing to talk to her about it. See if he couldn't appeal to her non-existent self preservation instincts.

He was just so busy at the moment. Between going out as Spider-man for 30 hours each week and all the changes happening in Stark industries, he was stretched thin. One thing though, that he always made time for was picking up Morgan from school every Wednesday afternoon and going out for ice cream. Just him and Morgan, and he was proud to say he hadn't missed one. It was their time to talk about absolutely anything, one time she had spent the whole hour ranting a country gal she'd meet who insisted that adult female chickens were chooks, not chickens. So he'd bring it up next Wednesday, it was Thursday today, but really how much trouble could she get into in a week?

"She appears to have found Mister Starks time travel files." 

"Oh yeah? What is she doing with them?"

He knew Morgan knew the dangers of time travel and they have a certain level of trust. Any other 12 year old looking at those would have him running as fast as he could so he could tear them up and lock them away again. Don't get me wrong here, he still fully intended to do that but he was curious. Probably much like his little sister with the files, he wanted to know what she would do. They were both Starks on some level, and curiosity had always been a Starks weakness or sometimes asset.

"At the moment Boss; she is just reading through them."

"Ok. I think I'll leave her be for the moment. The moment she does anything with this that isn't hypothetical you let me know. Oh, and buzz Harley will ya? We gotta keep him in the loop." He huffed a laugh, "maybe we can get the professor to quiz her." He chuckled as an afterthought. The best way to deal with this was to give her the reins on this, the best way to get that girl to do something was to tell her not to do it. 

"You sure that's wise, boss?"

"That girl has undiagnosed oppositional defiance. I tell her to drop it, she'll just dig deeper. It's a Stark trait."

So telling her to leave it alone would just pique her attention and solidify her resolve. He would keep his distance.

Three people had access to EDITH. Peter, Harley and Morgan, though she had very limited access. Peter still used Karen in his suits for Spider-Manning. 

Harley also had a personal A.I. he named HI/RO. Harley was particularly proud of HI/RO. 

HI/RO had been one of the first things he had designed after Tony had given him his 'upgrade' when he was 10. HI/RO was modelled after Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6, his favourite childhood film. It had taken him the better part of 3 years to get him functional. HI/RO stood for Hero Intelligence and Robot Operator.

Then for Morgan's tenth birthday, they had finished a project they had found called TONY. Peter had laughed when he had realised that Mister Stark (he had never gotten out of the habit of calling Tony 'Mister Stark' much to Harley's amusement) literally started to make an A.I of himself. Harley and Peter both decided to give it to Morgan as her personal A.I. they had thought he would be able to keep her from doing anything too stupid. Also as TONY was based on her father they unanimously agreed it was a great way for her to be closer to him.

Then again it was based on Mister Stark and he was a disaster that bred chaos. Needless to say, the pair of them had gotten in two more than a few pickles together. Morgan almost had Peter convinced that the lab disaster of '29 was TONY's fault; which to be fair, it probably was. TONY was only a 'month old' at the time, still working out the bugs in his system.

At the end of the day, however, TONY's primary objective is Morgan's health and safety, so he trusts him to keep her safe.

He had EDITH keep him updated as Morgan progressed through the files, keeping his distance. He turned back to the filtration system for Harley's armour, tinkering for another hour or so until Karen let him know that it was nearing dinner time. He packed away his designs and headed down to the communal kitchen, it was Bucky's turn to cook.

* * *

Morgan hated school. Her Mom was insistent that she couldn't skip too many grades; claiming that she needed peers her own age. That would be great if all the kids in her grade weren't ass-hats. One Ass-hat in particular made her life hell. Melissa Hunters or as Morgan likes to affectionately call her, Bitchy Barbie.

Morgan hated her with a passion. Freak. That was her favourite insult and as much as Morgan hated it every time she heard it, it hurt. She knew it shouldn't but Bitchy Barbie was right. She was a freak. 

Her brain worked far too fast, only needing information once. She made calculations about everything. She saw multiple outcomes for all the actions going on around her. Her brain just wouldn't stop. Everywhere she looked she saw calculations. It made meeting new people very difficult, if she doesn't have all the variables she won't be able to calculate their reactions.

The doctors called it an eidetic memory, and in the lab it was awesome. In school it made her look like a know it all. People speculated that her father had it as well but he had never been diagnosed so no one could say for sure. He had an IQ of 270, so maybe he just was a super genius. 

If it wasn't for Gwen she would probably have quit by now. That and Miles Morales, the incredibly hot boy whom she was crushing on big time. Between the two of them, they had somehow managed to keep her sane. So far. God. Just two more weeks to freedom. She could taste it already.

"Hey! Freak! Where's the rest of the circus? Or did they kick you out for boring the audience to death with, what was it this week? Electromagnetism?"

Morgan was just shutting her locker to head to class when she found herself boxed in by Bitchy Barbie and her goons

"Electrochemistry actually" she mumbled. Taken aback by the loss of her personal space. She needed her space, it made her very uncomfortable when any but a certain few got too close. She internally winced at how weak she sounded, hating that she couldn't fight back.

In the wise words of Einstein; The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Melissa had big fists and more than enough lackeys to help her. Engaging would only end in pain.

"Same difference, Freak!" The larger girl spat in her face, "would get the special treatment if it weren't for Daddy would you? The saviour's daughter. But really she's just a Freak."

Come on Gwen where are you when I need you?

"Where would you be without all his blood money? Huh? What would Daddy say if he saw you now? Little miss perfect. Always knows the answers but never speaks in class. Pathetic. Ahh!"

Melissa was cut off mid-rant when someone gave one of her meticulous braids a sharp tug, completely screwing them up.

"Piss off _Lissa_ you lower the IQ of the entire hallway every time that you open your mouth, spewing that unintelligent garbage."

Thank Thor! Backup had arrived.

She blinked rapidly against the tears threatening to fall. She was a Stark, and Starks are made of Iron. She could not show weakness, especially not to the enemy. Too late she thought as she took a step back away from her bully Gwen stepping up to defend her.

A predatory grin spread itself across Melissa's ugly mug.

"That's what I thought. You're nothing. Just gonna hide behind your guard dog, as always. See ya round Freak!"

See this? This is why Morgan hates school. Yay! Only 4 more years of hell. There was no force in the 9 realms that could make her stay until she was eighteen. Not even the great Pepper Potts.

* * *

"Hey, Mo," Peter called when his little sister entered his lab. "How was your day?"

He watched amused as the girl threw her bag to the floor as she tossed herself face-first onto the couch with an agonized wail. The sound muffled by the cushions. He chuckled at her antics.

"That bad, huh?"

She nodded. 

"Anything I can do to make it better?"

Morgan seemed to pause thinking it over. She shook her head.

"Do I need to beat someone up? I could set the Scary Lady on them?" He teased. She rolled over, sitting up.

"As awesome as watching them get torn to shreds by MJ would be, I have to decline. I can handle it."

"You sure? You have help if you want it."

"I know. There's only so long one can multiply fractions before they want to claw their own eyes out."

"I do not envy you. Mom still against advancing you again?"

"Yeah," she gave another howl as she flopped back into the couch. "I'm only 1 year ahead! And I am going insane! If it weren't for lab time with you and Harls I would literally drown myself in bleach to get away from this boredom!"

Peter laughed again, the morbid humour of his generation had obviously been handed down to the next.

"No, you wouldn't. You like MJ too much. You're gonna intern for her this summer. Looking forward to it?"

She shrugged.

Peter frowned, her working with MJ had been being planned since last summer. Mom had threatened her with it as a punishment that had backfired when Morgan had latched onto the idea like an excited puppy.

"Your day must have been shit. You've been looking forward to it for months. You sure you're ok?"

She shrugged again. While keeping a secret from her brothers was easy, MJ was a different problem. When her brothers were in the same room she could tell them she was getting a tattoo and they wouldn't blink. Morgan and MJ have a bet running on who would propose first. Morgan had an unfair advantage though, both of the boys had asked her to help them to propose to the other. She was enjoying it immensely, as both of them had picked the same day to do it: their 5 year anniversary dinner next week. So it was literally whoever got to dessert first. Her brothers were so cheesy.

But her 'internship' with MJ? Keeping her bullying a secret would be near on impossible. MJ was still omniscient as ever, knowing everyone's secrets, and probably the president's too. 

"Hey! Mo!" Peter shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts. He was frowning, studying her carefully. "This is more than just a bad math session. What is really going on? Did somebody hurt you?" He demanded as he sat on the couch.

"What?! No! I'm fine."

"No, you're not. You just zoned out on me big time. Took me two minutes to get your attention. What's going on Momo?" He asked softer this time.

"Oh, uh, sorry?"

"It's ok. So. What's up, little sis?"

"It really is nothing. And it's not important anyway."

"It's bothering you and you're very important. That makes it important too."

"No, I'm not." She whispered softly, forgetting her brother had literal super hearing.

"Excuse me?" He growled. "You Lil' Miss, are _the_ most important person in this Tower. You and Harley are my _world_ . I will always, _always put you first._ And nothing you can say can change my mind." He tugged her roughly into a bone-crushing bear hug. Morgan didn't say anything, taking comfort in her brother's safe arms.

"You are important. So very important." He presses a kiss to her head. "Go get changed and you can go to your lab. I doubt you have and homework"

She nodded against his chest before detangling herself from his arms.

"Hey, Mo?" He called after her, "3000, honey."

"3000." She agreed.

* * *

"Ok TONY, try that."

"Reckon that'll work, bug?"

"Here's hoping. Hit it TONY."

Morgan had been working in her lab for the past two hours. She had finally finished reading the time travel files. She was now trying to see if she could make it work. It wasn't like she wanted to use it though she could think of a few stops she would like to make. It was more that she wanted a challenge, to prove to herself she could do it. What could she say? She was a Stark and Starks never back down from a challenge.

She had barely started and was exhausted, why did time travel have to be so complicated? She sighed as she looked at the latest failure on her table. She needed to finish repairing the last of the files it would make everything so much easier.

"Yeah, Nah. That was a complete bust." Her A.I helpfully informed her. "Trial 87, fail. Spectacularly might I add. Would've been an amazing light show."

"Hey! I haven't failed…" she spun the current model, "I just found 87 ways that don't work…"

"No, Thomas Edison, we failed. But hey, we looked good doing it."

"How can you look good? You're code."

"I was referring to you, but I'll have you know my code is beautiful."

"I do know, I wrote most of it. Remind me next time I update it to re-write your definition of 'looking good', looking like a racoon who was dragged through the bush backwards is not 'looking good'."

"Heh. Your words, not mine."

"Shut it, you. Right, I'm turning in, might as well stay awake in class tomorrow. Mr Wilson might just have a heart attack in surprise."

"Alright, good night bug. I'll keep at these sims perhaps I can make a breakthrough."

"Yeah, go for it, TONY."

* * *

Harley was sooo done today. Pepper was halfway around the world this week, at a conference in London, so all the workers, stockbrokers, board members and department Heads were coming to him with their problems. Geez. This was exhausting, and why he had been very firm on the fact that he was not taking over as CEO. If he and Peter got their way MJ would be the next CEO, both happy with sharing the title of Head of Research and Development.

Lucky for both of them, Morgan had expressed her interest in taking over, seemingly enjoying helping her mother with the extra spreadsheets that got left lying around. 

He finished sorting out another fire in the intern labs. What in blue blazes were they doing down there? As he was about to answer the thousandth phone call, he glanced the time.

15.41

Shit. He had said he would pick Morgan up from school and he was late. Crap. He was hoping he could rope her into helping him for the rest of the evening. How did Pepper do it? It must be a woman thing, multitaskers and all that. He changed his route to the elevators rather than the Marketing department. The company was getting ready to release a new line of products and needed some paperwork finalised. It could wait. 

He had less than 20 minutes to get halfway across the city.

\---

He got to Midtown in just under 30 minutes, only 10 minutes late. What he found when he got there both shocked and angered him. His amazing, kind and wonderful little sister was balled up in a corner while a bigger, older girl stood over her, insults spewing from her mouth. 

He exited the car as fast as he could, marching quickly toward her. Morgan's eyes widened when she saw him, frantically trying to get him to abort his current trajectory. No way in hell. This was the twerp Peter had told him about. The mysterious 'she' that Morgan supposedly had 'handled'. The final straw was when the bully clenched a first to throw a punch in response to whatever distracted retort Morgan had thrown. Harley's blood boiled. How dare she!

He grabbed the larger girl's wrist before fists could be thrown. She twisted round to see who had kept her from her punch. She obviously had no clue who he was, all the Stark kids liked to keep a much lower profile than their father. He gave her a charming smile, "Everything al'ight over here ladies?" Playing up his southern accent.

The girl's demeanour changed in an instant. "Of course" she simpered, "my good friend and I were just having a talk." Shooting his sister a look that very clearly said 'back me up or else', of course, Morgan wasn't paying her any attention any more. Giving Harley a glare that very clearly said 'back off! I have this handled'. Yeah, so not gonna happen.

"Funny, it didn't look too friendly."

"Just a minor disagreement." She waved him off.

"I'm sure." He drawled. "You gotta name, doll?"

"Melissa, sir."

He flashed her another winning smile, "So, Melissa, mind telling me what y'all were chatting 'bout?"

"That's not really important, is it?" She tried fluttering her eyes at him. Gross. Even if he was into girls he wouldn't find this girl attractive, not even mentioning the fact he was nearly twice her age.

"It was nothing, _sir._ Hate to break up this party but I should really be going home." Morgan cut in, thoroughly pissed off and rather disturbed. She did not need to see her bully try to flirt with her brother.

"Just a minute sweet pea."

"Huh?" Melissa squeaked, sensing the change in power.

"Yes. Morgan here is my little sister." He gave her a cold smile, the charm draining away. "Anyway, Melissa, lovely to meet you. Always a pleasure to meet one of Morgan's friends. Nice to know she has someone looking out for her. I would hate to hear 'bout anybody hurting my baby sister now. That would make me and a few folks back home real mad. You wouldn't like us when we're mad." He dropped her hand.

"No, sir. Never sir." She stuttered, beginning to retreat down the street. "I'm just, uh, off now."

"Right… Hey Melissa? Leave Morgan alone. Like I said, real angry, 'specially her other brother. I'd watch your step if I were you." The threat clear in his voice.

'Yes, sir. Of-f c-course." The bully stumbled in her step before breaking into a run. Speeding off up the street.

"What the HELL was THAT?" Morgan turned on him as soon as she was out of earshot.

"I could ask you the same question! How long has _that_ been going on?"

" _That_ was none of your business!"

"Like hell! She was hurting you!"

"I'm fine! I didn't need your help!"

"Without my 'help' you would have a black eye right now. I couldn't just stand there!"

"Yes, you should have! I had it handled."

"It didn't look like you were handling it."

They were both shouting now. 

"I was fine. Not like it hasn't happened before." Morgan hissed. "Don't do that again." She turned and stalked off down the street, heading in the opposite direction of the car.

"Where are you going?"

"Home." She shouted.

"The car is this way."

"Don't care! I'm taking the subway."

He sighed as he asked HI/RO to drive the car round to him, hopping in when it pulled smoothly up next to him. He slowed the car to drive alongside his sister as she stalked toward the Metro. He wound down the window so she could hear him.

"Hey, I'm sorry."

She didn't respond.

"Want a ride? It's getting late. I just want you safe."

She kept walking.

"Look, " he sighed, " I shouldn't have gotten involved. I just didn't want to see you hurt." She huffed but stopped walking, getting in the car. They sat in silence until it was clear she wasn't going to say anything. She stayed sulking until they entered the tower.

She turned, "did you have to go all southern on her? That was just creepy."

He grimaced. "Oh, I know." He shuddered. "That was so wrong on so many levels. Do you think she realised I'm almost twice her age?"

Morgan went to get out of the car without answering. "Hey, we good?" He called after her, "I really didn't mean to upset you."

"It's fine, just a bad day all round."

"Ok. 3000."

She gave him a small smile. "3000. I'll be in my lab if you need me."

He frowned at the obvious dismissal.

"I just need some time to cool off right now."

He nodded. He got that, they were both upset, sometimes you just need to cool off a bit before talking. He watched her leave before going to find his Boyfriend. He would want to know what just went down.

* * *

"Ok T, what have you got for me?" Morgan yawned as she stumbled into her lab, she had just spent the last hour suffering through team dinner. Once a week everyone who lived in the tower got together to eat and socialize. It was always filled with pranks, jabs and general chaos. She had slipped out as soon as she could claiming a headache. It wasn't too far from the truth- listening to that ruckus would give any sane person one.

"Not a lot, I'm now on sim… 863. All fails. I have gathered a fair bit of data for you to sort through. But if I may, I have a suggestion, what if we entered a date to travel to. We would then have two fixed points to work with."

"Hmm… I see where you're going… yes, that could work… but when to go?"

"When would you like to go?"

"Well, I could see Dad again… But I wouldn't be able to talk to him, wouldn't want to screw up the present or anything like that… What about 2017 or 18? He wouldn't recognise me and I've always wanted to see New York before the decimation."

"In theory, right?"

"Right… of course." she agreed absentmindedly, too absorbed in the calculations in front of her. "Enter June 2017, Peter would have been out on break then, maybe I'll see a rookie Spider-man." She mused.

"Yeah let's run with… I dunno 19th of June Twenty-Seventeen.

"Done. Running the first sim now. It may take a while, there are some complicated equations to work through.

"Thanks, T. I'm gonna head up, today was exhausting. Send it to my watch if you finish it before I'm up."

"Yes. Go take care of those racoon eyes you got there. Hey, those software updates done on your watch yet?"

"Yep! Working perfectly too. Gonna surprise Peter and Harley with it tomorrow."

"Nice. Knew you could do it Bug. Go. This will take at least a few hours even with my superior processing power."

"Alright, alright, If I didn't know better I would say you're trying to get rid of me."

* * *

"Howdy."

Harley jumped, he spun around to see Peter lent up against their bedroom door. His hair was wet and he had nothing but a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. Did he have any idea how distracting it is when he does that? Probably, he did it often enough. Once he had purposely used the shower in the gym to help Sam finally win a sparring match. He grinned at the memory. That had been a memorable afternoon, Peter ditching the remainder of his training to 'help' Harley. Meaning he had dragged Harley into the nearest closet to have an emergency make out session like a couple of teenagers. It was fun until Wanda decided she needed the bucket and mop.

No. Now was not the time for that. He hadn't been able to talk to him yet about his and Morgan's fight earlier. He had been collared by a Department Head on his way to the lab. He needed to get that off his chest before he could enjoy any nocturnal activities his boyfriend had planned.

"Howdy? Really?"

"Hey! I was trying something new."

"No, you were butchering the beautiful southern speech of my people. I don't even say 'howdy'."

"Your people? I'm fairly sure your Mother likes me more than you."

"You're deluded. You didn't last two days on the farm, you'd be no help out there."

"True. Cows stink, like worse than the subway. They say go to the country to get some fresh air but I swear I was suffocating out there. I'll take car exhaust any day."

"I know, sweetheart." He pressed a soft kiss on Peter's lips, before sighing. 

"What's wrong." Peter picked up on his mood change instantly.

"Lil' Miss didn't say anything to you this afternoon did she?"

"No. Why?"

"I met the mysterious 'she' today."

"The one who's been bullying her?"

"Yep. I stepped in when it looked like she was about to give our sister a black eye." He felt Peter tense up, nobody hurts Morgan, Nobody. "I think I went about it the wrong way coz she got all upset at me once I'd chased that little bitch off. Anyway, we got in a fight and she tried to take the subway home. I managed to get her in the car and I thought we were good but she brushed me off this afternoon and hasn't spoken to me since."

Peter nodded empathetically. "She did leave dinner as fast as she could."

"See? I'm worried I fucked up and she's still mad at me."

"Hon, Darling, she's 'officially' a teenager next month. She's gonna get moody at us. It's normal. When I was her age I wanted to do everything by myself. Hence, sneaking out in the wee hours of the morning in a onesie. I deliberately didn't tell Mister Stark about Flash for the same reason. This is the same thing. She wants to become independent, to not need her awesome older brothers to swoop in and save her at the first whiff of trouble." Peter kissed him. 

"I guess."

"I am right, you know it. Talk to her in the morning and she'll be fine." He flashed Harley a wolfish grin. "Now, can we get back to what I had planned for this evening?"

Harley grinned, "Nothing I want more Sweetheart."

* * *

It was one of those mornings. The kind where anything and everything goes wrong. Peter had taken more than a few knocks the night before helping Matt with a couple of rouge Inhumans messing about in Hell's Kitchen; so had felt like shit when he had gotten up much too late for his liking. Getting up late resulted in there being no breakfast ready when Morgan rolled out of bed.

Pepper was still away on her business trip so Harley had been running ragged to keep things going this side of the globe, starting with a video conference to investors in Hong Kong that started at 4.30 am. So everybody was late to breakfast, rushing to get ready. Of course, this morning is the morning Dum.E was going to set the toaster on fire; right after another disastrous attempt at making a smoothie without a lid. At this point, everybody knew he did it on purpose; jokes on him though, he has to clean up. Why was he even in the kitchen?

Morgan rushed into the kitchen at 7.30, running around to get everything she needed for school. She had been up till 2 am playing around with the time travel specs. She was so close to a breakthrough, she could feel it. But staying up till two wasn't her best idea as she slept through her alarm, forcing TONY to get creative in order to get her out of bed. 

One look at the kitchen and she wanted to turn around and run the other way. Peter was standing in the middle of the center of the devastation, covered head to toe in some kind of smoothie. He has solid chunks of something plastered in his hair. Dum.E was also covered in the goop but to a lesser degree, he was wheeling around dejectedly as Peter berated him. 

TONY reminded her of the time, snapping her back into action from where she had been standing mouth agape. She rushed in as fast as she dared going to grab a quick bowl of cereal (she had seen the toaster in the sink.) before she needed to leave in 15 minutes. However, Murphy's law decided to strike again, the bot swinging his arm around to start cleaning only to catch her leg sending her tumbling adding fruit loops to the mess decorating the kitchen.

That was when Harley walked in. "What in tarnation?!" The man quickly backtracked, moving to the safety of the doorway. Both of the human occupants of the room pointed to the offending robot. Harley's eyebrows rose higher, disappearing in his fringe as he took in the full scope of the destruction.

"Uhh… Breakfast?" Peter said trying to sound upbeat and failing miserably. In all honesty, he was seconds away from screaming out in exasperation. It wasn't even 8 yet and he was thoroughly over the day. 100% done. At that moment the toaster in the sink hissed as a fresh wave of smoke rolled off it. "You know what? I'm going back to bed. Come get me if you find my will to live." He called as he trudged morosely back to their bedroom. They heard a door slam down the hall and the shower start up.

"I don't even want to know what you two have been doing. Go get changed and meet me in the garage in ten minutes. You, young lady, are late."

Morgan just nodded numbly still shell shocked from her fall and subsequent events. Right. School. 

She quickly got into a fresh uniform, infinitely thankful that her hair had survived this morning mishap unscathed. She did not have time for a shower. She was just leaving the penthouse when her A.I tried to get her attention. 

"T, I'm about to be late. What is it?" She asked, getting in the elevator.

"It looks like our latest simulation was a success. I just finished crunching the numbers."

"Wait really?" The elevator began to descend. "Oh, shiz sticks. T, I don't have time right now. Send it to my watch, I'll look over it in home room."

"Doing that now…"

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, she could see Harley lent up against his old mustang, waiting for her.

"Transfer complete. Running program."

"What?" She checked her watch to see what on earth her chaotic A.I. was up to. "TONY No! EDITH override! TONY, NO!" 

The last thing she saw was her brother's panicked face dashing toward her. 

Her world went dark.

* * *

Harley waited next to his baby. It had been a while since he had taken his mustang for a spin. He was feeling a tad nostalgic this morning. He had barely made it to the elevator before he started to crack up laughing. The scene in the kitchen this morning had reminded him of back when he had taken over responsibility of the bot. Dum.E was always making a mess.

The elevator whirred to life. He lent on his door waiting for his sister. 

The ding sounded as his watch lit up red. Telling him Morgan was doing something dangerous. She was in the elevator? He watched as the doors opened to reveal a panicked Morgan. What was she up to?

"No! EDITH override! TONY, NO!"

He pushed off the car, running to his baby sister. He didn't notice as his watch lit up once more. His sister's terrified eyes met his before she disappeared. There was no flash, no bang, she was just gone.

"Morgan!" He cried out. He was halfway across the garage when it felt like the floor was falling out from beneath him and the darkness claimed him too.

* * *

Upstairs Peter had just gotten out of the shower and gotten dressed slipping on his watch just as the alert came through.

He didn't even have time to read it before his spidey sense went nuts at an unknown threat. His watch lit up as a new program ran through it. Vertigo claimed him as his vision went black.

* * *


	2. Gathering Bearings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It works! Morgan and her brothers crash land in 2017. Time travel is a hell of a headache. Morgan is in sooo much trouble. 
> 
> And there is a slight chance of FRIDAY going Skynet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay safe everybody. Stay indoors and stay safe. Hope my terrible writing can bring you some relief from the boredom. I should know I've spent nearly 200 hours watching NCIS. 
> 
> As usual, send me your comments and thoughts live to know what y'all think.
> 
> Thnx Cat  
> 😁👍🐈

2017 New York, Avengers Tower

Tony was in his lab (when was he not) waiting for the spider-kid. However, unlike usual, he wasn't alone. Rhodey had popped by for a surprise visit, his braces were acting up. That was his excuse anyway (he really wanted to know about this intern Pepper had mentioned).

"So why are you in such a hurry tonight?" Colonel Rhoades asked.

"The kid's here for the weekend. Aunt Hottie is outta town. Can you believe he tried to convince me that he was fine on his own."

"What?! What kid? And also you're in a monogamous relationship if you think back to your very public proposal. A press conference, really?"

"I improvised! She said yes, didn't she? And why don't you know? Pepper said she told you."

"That you have a kid? No!"

"I don't have a kid! What are you talking about? Why do I have a kid now?"

"Since that's the only plausible reason I can think of for a kid to 'come over for the weekend'. Since when does the great Tony Stark have kids staying the weekend?!"

"He's not my kid. Geez. He's my intern!"

"And this intern is a child? You can't stand children!"

"Yes. Well, no. Not this child. He's 15 and he's a genius. He can keep up with me, Rhodey. Me!"

"Not helping convince me that this kid isn't yours."

"He is not mine. Hang around for an hour and meet him. I can't wait to watch him embarrass himself in front of the great Iron Patriot."

"Really? For the last time, I had no say in that. Anyway, I have to report back to base by 1900 Tones, I can't stay."

"You're all done. He's here in… FRI?"

"Happy is 12 minutes out with Mr Parker, Boss."

"Thanks, Baby Girl. He'll be here in 12 minutes. Of course, he has to stop by the kitchen on the way up. Gotta keep his blood sugar up."

"Blood sugar? What? Since when do you give a shit about crap like that?"

"Uhh… Since he passed out on me because he forgot his lunch. And watch your mouth when he gets here. He's an impressionable teenager."

"Wow. Ok. You know what? I have 3 hours to get back to base, I want to meet this child who has the great Tony Stark wrapped around his pinkie."

"He does not have me wrapped around his pinkie."

"You have a fully stocked fridge, you've childproofed your lab and your music is set to a reasonable volume. Don't think I didn't notice. I wasn't going to call you out on it because I figured Pepper had finally gotten you to listen to her. And. And _you_ , Anthony Edward Stark just told me to watch my _language_. This kid has you tightly around his finger."

Tony opened his mouth to argue but found he had no argument. The kid needed food and he couldn't live off takeout. His music had almost deafened the poor boy the first time he had entered the lab, he had forgotten about his extra sensitive ears. And yes he had put away most of the more dangerous items that usually lived in his lab, genius or not the kid was fifteen he couldn't have him blowing himself up now could he? 

"One hour. One hour and he'll have you too. Guaranteed. This kid is impossible not to like."

"Yeah right-"

An alarm started going off then putting an end to the men's banter. Tony swung round to the nearest monitor already typing commands.

"Update FRI what's going on?"

"Multiple intruders detected."

"Where are they and how did they get in?"

"Unsure, boss. My sensors are telling me they just appeared. We have two. Bringing up locations on the monitor."

"Double time baby girl. Figure out how they got in, people don't just come out of thin air."

"One's in the elevator." Tony informed his best friend, "bring them here please, FRI. The others in the Garage. Warn Happy to take a detour until this situation is resolved."

"Done boss. Should I tell Mr Parker to remain upstairs?"

"Peter's here? Why wasn't I alerted?"

"My apologies, Boss. He arrived the same time as the intruders, I prioritised alerting you to them over alerting you to Mr Parker. I will adjust my programming."

"Sure thing Baby Girl. What are we looking at? Is the person armed?"

"No Boss. This intruder is a small female, no weapons are being detected. Although her watch's interface is trying to connect to my systems."

"That used to be comforting then I met Natasha."

They could hear the elevator nearing their floor. Rhodey got out his handgun and Tony donned a gauntlet. A ding rang out through the lab and the elevator doors opened and a young girl stumbled out.

"Somethings wrong… with FRIDAY, uncle Rhodey"

She mumbled before she passed out on his floor.

What the fuck?!

* * *

When Morgan opened her eyes again she was on the floor. She was still in the elevator, thank Thor. The doors had closed again which was odd, where was Harley? She remembered him running toward her and he wouldn't have left her on the floor. She rubbed her head, evidently, she had hit it on her way down. 

Just as she got her bearings the old intruder alarm went off. That wasn't good.

"FRIDAY?" She called, "What's happening?" 

"Intruder, please identify yourself." The A.I responded.

"Intruder? FRIDAY, override. Morgan Stark code Madame Secretary."

"Error. Invalid Identification."

Really did Peter change hers again? Really not the time and not helping her head.

"Morgan Stark, Baby Boss Lady."

"Error. Invalid Identification."

"TONY. TONY, what's wrong with FRI? Is she being hacked? TONY?" She tapped her watch impatiently trying to get it to work. Fuck that program fried it. Her head was really starting to pound now. Forget school she was going back to bed. Peter was right, fuck today.

She tried to stand as the elevator jerked to life falling straight back down. She counted how long it was before it stopped moving. She was going up. The ride only lasted 28 seconds, if her calculations were right, and they were 96% of the time, she was at the main lab. Peter's 'Spidey Cave' below her with her lab below that. The procedure was that she go to her panic room hidden in her lab two floors down. Why had the A.I broken her own procedures?

It couldn't have worked, could it? It wasn't finished?

She felt severely light-headed as she clambered to her feet. The walls swayed in her peripheral. Something wasn't right. She was going to pass out, she thought as the elevator doors opened. Uncle Rhodey was standing at the ready as she stumbled out.

"Something's wrong… with FRIDAY, uncle Rhodey." she gasped out before she lost her balance and fell. She barely registered the person behind her uncle as the darkness claimed her once more.

Uncle Rhodey will keep her safe.

* * *

"I take it that's not Peter."

"No."

The girl had not only addressed him by his nickname but called him uncle. What on earth was going on?

Both of the heroes had lowered their weapons when they had seen that their intruder was a pre-teen girl. That could have been a mistake if the girl was anything like Natasha, but this child had seemed genuinely scared. Rhodey knelt down next to the unconscious girl, checking for her pulse. Intruder or not she needed medical attention.

"Tones, we need to call an ambulance."

Tony had brought up the surveillance footage from inside the elevator. While Rhodey was checking the girl. He was the one with medical field training.

"She can't go to a hospital, Platypus, look." The footage was projected from his screen. The footage showed an empty elevator then the feed turned to static. When the static cleared you could see the dazed girl on the floor. She mumbled something as she sat up.

"Intruder. Please identify yourself." FRIDAY asked in the video.

"Intruder?" She seemed genuinely confused as to why FRIDAY would ask her such a question. "FRIDAY, override. Morgan Stark code Madame Secretary." 

Morgan _Stark_? What on earth is going on? 

"Error. Invalid Identification."

"Morgan Stark, Baby Boss Lady." She tried again getting annoyed 

"Error. Invalid Identification."

"Who do you think she really is?" Rhodey asked Tony.

"I don't know yet. Take away her watch, it's obviously her communication device. I want to take her to the med bay, normal people don't appear from thin air. I have questions for her." He helped Rhodey to his feet, before scooping up the small, unconscious teenager in his arms. She seemed to fit there, for some unknown reason having this child in his arms was comforting to him. No. He told himself one freaky teen was all he was allowed. Pepper would kill him if he brought home another child. 

"The other intruder was in the garage could you check it out, they haven't moved in the last 5 minutes so I'm assuming we have a similar situation down there. I want to check on Peter before " Rhodey nodded, accepting his orders. 

* * *

He was sprawled out on the carpet. The carpet smelt new, clean. Odd. He gave a small groan as he sat up, his insides felt like they had been rearranged like some kind of jigsaw puzzle. 

What the hell had happened? 

He stumbled as he stood, he hasn't been this off-balance since he and Thor had that drinking contest 2 years ago, man, did he regret that. The next morning had been hell but hey how else do you celebrate your 21? He staggered for the bedroom door, noticing it's generic decor. It was nothing like the room he shares with his boyfriend. Theirs was filled with geek merchandise and collectibles.

What the hell had happened?

He staggered through the pristine kitchen. It was familiar to him but seriously outdated. Was that a gas oven? His head was pounding. Fuck. He really hopes this wasn't a hangover, not that he had many to compare it to. He grabbed a glass from the counter filling it with water, grateful as the cool liquid soothed him. The glass clattered as the intruder alarm startled him.

The sharp noise shattered a bubble he hadn't even realised was there. All his senses went nuts.

He could smell the leather of the couch in the next room, the lingering scent of nan bread and butter chicken that must have been last night's takeout. He could smell motor oil mixed with cologne. Something, no, _someone_ he hadn't smelt in years. 

What the hell was going on?

The sun filtering in through the windows was suddenly much too bright, reflecting off of almost every surface of the shiny kitchen. Blinding him, hurting his eyes.

He could hear every noise in the tower, the electricity in the walls, the plumbing in the floor. The hundreds of panicked conversations happening below him as the Tower went on lockdown. Morgan. He needed to find Morgan. What was wrong with this morning?

He focused his hearing on her footsteps, her voice, even her breathing. There! She was entering the lab. Something was wrong. FRIDAY was down. Good to know. There were other people in the lab Rhodey was there. She was safe. Harley. Where was he? He was in the garage-

"Mr Parker. Boss has initiated lockdown procedure. You cannot leave the Penthouse." FRIDAY informed him as he tried to summon the elevator.

A new wave of pain pierced his skull as she spoke, she was too loud.

"FRI, I am Boss. Who initiated lockdown?"

He typed a command into the elevator panel. Didn't work. "FRIDAY, override. Peter Parker, code Stark 2.0." 

The A.I stopped responding.

"You are not Peter. I have made a mistake. Informing Boss. Remain where you are."

"What the hell, FRI? You picked a hell of a day to go Skynet."

He tried to type another command into the system. It failed again. This time another alarm went off. This alarm was of a higher pitch. His scrambled brain couldn't identify it. The noise drilled into his brain, it hurt, a lot. He tried to activate his suit, kicking himself for not doing it sooner. His watch wasn't working, whatever had happened had fried it. 

He curled up into a tight ball with his hands clamped over his ears trying to block out the alarms shrill cacophony. It didn't help. Spots danced in his vision as the world around him assaulted him. Morgan was safe he thought as he lost awareness.

* * *

Harley's head was throbbing as if Metallica had held a concert in his brain. Morgan, he needed to get to her. He got to his feet, swaying as he did so. He crossed the garage as fast as he could. He could walk straighter when he was drunk. What was going on with him? He made it to the elevator just as it started to move. It was going up. He could only hope it was FRIDAY taking Morgan to her lab as per her emergency protocols. He wasn't sure what the emergency was yet but something was definitely wrong, the pounding in his head could attest to that.

He collapsed on the floor. Why did he feel like he had just been sucked through a black hole before being spat out missing a few vital organs? He put his head between his legs as a wave of nausea washed over him. When it had passed he looked at his watch to try and figure out what had happened. He had gotten an alert from his sisters watch before everything had gone to shit. He needed to see what had happened. 

"HI/RO. HI/RO?" His watch wasn't responding. He pulled out the kimoyo bead the Princess had given him and used it to connect his watch to his phone. He could figure this out. He was a mechanic.

"HI/RO?" He tried again.

"Sorry. My operating system seems to be damaged."

He gave a relieved laugh. "I thought I lost you bud. Can you connect to TONY or Karen?"

"Both are damaged, however, I am finding two Karens. One is damaged like me. TONY is trying to connect to FRIDAY but she appears to be keeping him out."

"Two Karens? How is that possible?"

"I have connected to the internet to try to find something to aid us. The date is off. According to the internet, it is the 19th of June 2017."

"Are you suggesting time travel?" 

"According to TONY that is the last project he and Madame Secretary were working on. He offers his sincerest apologies. He believes this was his doing."

"She is sooo grounded. Pull up her's and Peter's vitals."

Morgan's vitals came up a second later she had passed out. Shit. "Where are Peter's?" He demanded as he tried to stand, his body protesting all the way. The room swam as he straightened up, he grabbed the wall to steady himself.

He looked back at the screen to see two sets of vitals for his boyfriend. He may not be a scientist but he could figure out which belonged to his Peter, and his Peter was in pain. He had been in their bedroom when this started so he hoped he was still there. He pushed off the wall. He couldn't take the elevator if FRIDAY was comprised. He pushed open the door to the stairwell, it had unlocked when the alarm went off.

"HI/RO get me the quickest path to Madame Secretary." He said, making up his mind. Peter would kill him if he went to him before their sister. Peter could handle himself, or so he hoped. 

"She is moving."

"No, she's not." He said, picking up his pace. His phone still had their stats up. She was still unconscious. A thought occurred to him then had anyone else been affected? "HI/RO how many people were affected by Morgan and TONY's program?"

"Only three. You, 2.0 and Madame Secretary. Madame is on the 37th floor."

"The old med bay?" The person must be a friend rather than a foe. 

He had made it to the 21st floor when Colonel Rhodes cut him off, aiming a gun at him. He knew reasonably Rhodey hadn't met him yet, therefore, he was the intruder, the threat. It didn't mean it didn't hurt to see the man he thought of as an uncle look at him with such distrust.

"Hands up. Who are you?"

"My sister, have you seen her? Rhodey have you seen Morgan?" He pleaded as he put his hands on his head and made a show of the fact he wasn't armed, omitting the nano gauntlet in his watch. That was if he could get it to work.

"So you're a Stark too?" Rhodey asked, unbelievingly, but least he put his weapon away.

Thank the Lord, Thor and Zeus while you're at it. He knows where she is.

"No. Harley Keener, sir. Is she ok?"

"She will be. She is getting medical attention in the med bay. Hit her head. Mind telling me how she just appeared in the elevator in one of the most secure buildings in the world? Mind telling me how you got in yourself?"

"I would, but I really don't know, sir. I'm just a mechanic." He stumbled as Rhodey led him to the elevator. He grabbed the wall again as the world spun around him again. It was a miracle they were all alive. This time travel really wasn't fun. He wonders if this is what it was like in the time heist. Somehow he doesn't think so. "God. Right now I think I'm gonna be thankful to be breathing." 

Rhodey helped him into the elevator. "Uhh, FRIDAY? I think we need to go back to the med bay."

"Of course, Colonel."

"Hey FRI?" He didn't care about the odd look Rhodey was giving him. The A.I didn't answer. "Really glad you didn't go Skynet. I'm not ready for the world to end." He rested his pounding head against the cool wooden panelling. To his and the Colonel's surprise the A.I responded. 

"That's what 'not' Peter said. He said I chose a hell of a day to go 'Skynet'. I am unfamiliar with this reference."

He huffs a laugh. "That's a good thing Baby Girl. How is 'not' Peter?"

"Protocol Kryptonite was activated after he tried to shut down my systems. Boss has brought him back to the med bay."

"You did what?" Harley all but screamed. He knew exactly what she meant by that, it having happened only once before. Peter had been compromised by an alien symbiote that was later coined 'Venom'. Venom had attacked Harley, causing him to activate the 'Spidey's Lullaby' protocol. 

Spidey's Lullaby was a variation of Tony's Kryptonite protocol. Tony had come up with it back when the Avengers had first come to the tower. Most of the enhanced at the time had enhanced hearing. In case any of them were compromised like Agent Barton was in 2012. Namely Steve Rogers. Tony has trust issues the size of the empire state building. It was never meant to be used on Peter. It was based on tech that had been used on him in 2008 when Obadiah Stane before he pulled the arc out of his chest. Tony had told Harley this story when they cleaned up FRI's code just after Morgan was born.

They had found it shortly after Tony's death and had concluded that it was necessary and had found a better, less painful way to do it. That protocol was seriously outdated. They didn't think it had even been looked at since Tony created it in 2012. But couldn't really begrudge the A.I, Biometrics could be fooled. If Peter did try to shut her down he would have been classified as a hostile enhanced and the protocol would have been activated. 

To Harley's knowledge, it had never been activated, except it now has. 

The joys of time travel.

* * *

Tony had barely placed the girl on a bed in the med bay when FRIDAY was telling him the Kryptonite Protocol had been activated in the penthouse. He quickly suited up to check it out. Peter was up there. He couldn't figure out why FRIDAY would activate it.

Turns out it wasn't Peter up there they had somehow fooled her. Relief flooded through him, that meant Peter was still with Happy driving around waiting for the all clear. 

As his HUD lit up he asked her to pull up the feed. This man was much older than Pete, FRIDAY's estimate at around mid-twenties. The feed showed a man curled up in the fetal position near the elevator. His arm was covering his face and his hoodie didn't help Tony identify him. He had her cut the alarm as he entered the penthouse. The man on screen visibly relaxed. 

He didn't think this guy would be much of a threat now. But the fact he had reacted so harshly to the Kryptonite Protocol surprised him, he forgot he had even made it and he definitely hadn't tested it. The protocol was supposed to work like a flash bomb. It wasn't supposed to hurt. But, then he really didn't like when people messed with his stuff.

He exited the elevator quickly, the intruder was still passed out on the floor. Suited down, there was no need for it now. Scans showed he was out cold. He gently rolled the intruder onto his side. He was surprisingly light for someone his size. He reeled back when he saw the person's face. 

This _was_ Peter. Minus the baby fat and adding a couple of inches and maybe half a decade or so. This boy- no this man, could be Pete's older brother. This was Peter and he been hurt by Tony's hand. He scooped up Peter's older doppelganger and rushed him back to get to him to the med bay. After all he had seen, he couldn't rule out what he was beginning to think. His theory would explain Miss Stark downstairs too.

But time travel was impossible. Right?

* * *

The doors opened on the ancient (in his eyes) med bay. Harley rushed out nearly toppling over as another wave of nausea hit him. The med bay was rather empty at the moment due to most of the Avengers having arrest warrants on them in 2017. 

Nobody to get injured.

"Where is he?" He demanded as he used a desk to steady him. That was the love of his life on one of those beds and he had been hurt. Hurt by one of the things there to protect him. 

"Hey!" Rhodey backed off a bit, "I've been on a wild goose chase looking for your ass."

"Then find out." He snarled. "When FRIDAY set Kryptonite on him she hurt him. I want to see my family!" His family was hurt! He didn't even know Morgan's condition yet! He needed to protect them! "And watch your mouth Colonel! She is twelve!"

He stumbled down the corridor looking in doors to find his family. He came across Peter first. He was (thankfully) in the blackout room. Harley knew it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as what they had in the future, but it was better than a standard room. Kryptonite would've done a on his senses.

The Blackout room was designed to block out as much noise and light as possible. It also has an observation room, a bit like the one you would see in an interrogation room. He pulled in there ignoring Rhodey's loud protests. Inside was Tony and to his surprise Dr Cho. He didn't know she had already been working here.

"How is he?" Harley demanded.

"Who are you? This is a private room." She responded.

"Nice to see you too, Helen. Didn't realise you'd been hanging around here for so long."

"Hey! Private building more like, how did you get in?"

"I think you'll find I come under the 'family' category. How is he?" He turned to the man, "And Tony, you need to leave. He wakes up and hears your heartbeat he will freak out. Nothing against you. He will want to see you, but he needs the news broken differently. Not right after he was attacked. Go take your Peter to the park or something."

"Not till I get some names. I have a theory and I really don't like the idea of it being possible." Tony was getting right up in his face. Peter began to stir. Harley really didn't want to test his own theory about what would happen if Peter woke up with Tony nearby.

"Yes, time travel is possible. You invented it. Yes, that is Peter Parker. Now Go! Old man!" He began pushing Tony out the door. 

"You still haven't told us who you are." Tony turned around and looked at him.

"Really old man? I'm hurt. I thought we were connected."

"Tennessee?"

"Yes! Now go. I don't want his mini-me coming to find us, go keep him occupied. You can leave Rhodes if that makes you feel better. Just keep mini Peter's attention away from the tower" He pushed Tony into the elevator where Rhodey was still standing. He pressed the down button before he could argue.

He rushed back to the observation room, pushing Rhodey inside. Satisfied that Peter would be ok. He started looking for their sister. Morgan was in the next room down.

A nurse was with her. She was sitting up and talking much to his relief. He quickly wrapped her in a tight bear hug. The nurse wasn't happy with him commandeering her ward. He didn't care.

"Gahh. Wow."

"Yeah. You look worse than I feel. How is that possible?"

"I think I miss calculated. Not that I would have, run it that is. It wasn't supposed to be run. It wasn't even finished"

"So it was you."

She nodded, tears pooling in her eyes. This was a disaster. "It was a puzzle. I wanted to put it back together."

"Sometimes things should stay broken." He told her gently. "Where's your watch? We can start trying to get home while we wait for Peter to wake up." He stood and offered her his hand. She took it shakily. 

"I don't know. I think Dad confiscated it."

"We'll have to get it back. Can't have Dad poking around our tech. He also doesn't know when not to touch."

"I wasn't going to use it. I swear."

"Yes but as good as we are, it is possible to hack our systems. Something like that can cause a hell of a lot of damage when in the wrong hands. There was a reason the Professor broke it like that. He thought it was gone. But even now in 2017 nothing is ever truly gone from the net."

He poked his head into the observation room, letting Dr Cho know they were headed in. She wasn't too happy about that but at least she didn't fight him on it. 

It was dark in the room, it was supposed to be. He knew that Peter would likely be able to see right now. But he and Morgan couldn't, this brought a whole new meaning to the blind leading the blind. After 30 seconds of stumbling round in the dark and them both tripping over each other a dozen times, he heard a chuckle.

"Sorry." He said. Peter had once told him that whispering didn't help with sensory overload. He explained it once saying it was like his ears and eyes were like a radio that had lost it's tuning. Like he was listening to all hundred different stations at once. Seeing the dust specks in the air in front of him as well as things a hundred meters from him. People using a normal volume around him helped him 'tune' into the right station.

"You two aren't exactly stealthy. I take it you know what happened."

Harley led Morgan towards his boyfriend's voice. Holding his hand out to find any obstacles between them. Peter grabbed his outstretched hand when he got close enough, causing Harley to jump. Scowling at the sound of his boyfriend's sniggers. Peter helped guide him to the side of his bed without further problems.

"Not precisely but I have a good idea of what's going on. Haven't gotten access to a computer of any kind yet."

"Why?" Peter asked carefully.

"It's the year 2017 and Tony doesn't trust us. Mainly because he doesn't know us."

"Dad?" Peter asked carefully.

"Yeah. Mo here accidentally sent us on an unplanned field trip to the past."

"Really, Mo? Why? Or better yet, How?"

"I wasn't going to use it. I just wanted a challenge I guess. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. You, however, look like shi-poop. You look like poop. I think whatever you did was worse for you than it was for your brother and I. Get up here." Peter helped his sister onto his bed. "You can turn on the lights if you want." 

"Nah, I'm good." She curled into his side, stealing his blanket.

"Where is Dad?" 

"I told him to go keep your mini-me entertained. Didn't think we needed him stopping by just yet."

"Probably for the best right now. You all right?"

"I should be asking you that. The Kryptonite Protocol?"

"It works if that's what you're asking."

"No, asshole. Did it hurt you?"

"Aye, young ears. Watch your mouth. Is that what was set off, I was wondering." Peter pondered.

"M' Not young. I go to high school. I have heard it all before." Morgan mumbled into his chest, half asleep.

"Peter, I'm not joking around here. Did it hurt you?" Harley scowled at him. He hated that Peter constantly downplayed his injuries. He knows that he thinks that keeping the truth from people, it will keep them from worrying but it doesn't. It makes him worry more not knowing if there was something he wasn't saying.

"Ish. The fact our time travel escapade already had me in overload didn't help."

"FRI identified you as hostile when you tried to hack her. She set it off in defence."

"I know. Then I take it Mister Stark knows about me."

"What? You mean you actually being Peter Parker. Yes. I told him he needed to keep you busy. It was the only way I could get rid of him."

"You know I can interact with my mini-me as you've dubbed him."

"I know that. Tony doesn't."

"Good plan. Knew there was a reason I kept you around."

"I can think of a few other reasons you might want me around." Harley murmured enticingly into his ear.

"Mmm. There is a child in my lap. Unfortunately, they are an awful lot like cats. You just don't have the heart to move them. So I can't play right now." Peter whispered against Harley's lips. "Plus don't we have an audience? I doubt Mister Stark would leave us unsupervised."

"Nothing good ole Uncle Rhodey hasn't seen before."

"Mhmm. Well, we wouldn't want to traumatise him too soon. Plus dunno about you but I feel I just went toe to toe with the sinister 6 and lost. Not that would ever happen."

"Never. Let's get some shut-eye. I reckon we can get away with keeping the Great Savior of the Universe waiting."

"Have you ever ghosted Tony Stark?"

"No. I lived with him."

"Shut up. I get enough of your flirting on a good day. Let alone when a herd of elephants are partying on my… everything."

"Part of me wants to tuck you in and say there, there with a pat on the head. The other two-thirds of me is saying serves you right for sling-shotting us nearly 15 years into the past." Harley snickered quietly.

"Ugg… Sleep."

"I know insomnia runs in the family but _this_ is what it takes to get you to sleep voluntarily."

"Shhh."

"Ok, Momo. We'll shut up now."


	3. Explaining Themselves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner with the fam, present and future. Oh, what fun. Truths to come out.
> 
> Bold- is future Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I told you I had a schedule. Here's chapter 3 on time. Hope you enjoy it. Stay home and stay safe. I'm actually going back to work tomorrow at KFC. I live in NZ so we are moving back to level 3. Drive Thu only. But man, am I looking forward to a double cheeseburger. 🍔🍟🥤  
> Anyway... Love your comments, keep them coming. Let me know what you want to see and I'll try to find a way to get it in here somehow.
> 
> Thnx   
> Cat  
> 🐈😊👍

"They're sleeping?"

"Yep."

"How long have they been sleeping?"

"About, " Rhodey checks his watch, "3 hours."

"Did they do anything interesting?"

"Yeah, they slept. Although I think the boys kissed at one point."

"Really?" Tony's eyebrow rose, "He hasn't told me about that."

"If he's who he says he is. Are we really going along with this ridiculous story they've spun?"

Rhodey had called into his base command to get permission to extend his PT time due to a situation at the tower. Unfortunately, they still wanted him back by 0800 the next day. The original Peter was upstairs trying to do his homework before dinner. Tony had told him he needed to check on something real quick.

"We've spoken to one of them for all of 10 minutes and of those 10 minutes he wasn't exactly forthcoming." Tony was pacing, using his best friend as a sounding board. "They weren't very stealthy. Clomping around carelessly. Then they were all sick. That was odd. If they were insurgents, wouldn't they have had ways to prevent them from falling ill? I'd wager what made them ill was their method of transportation-"

"What? You think they teleported?"

"No. They have me sold on time travel. You aren't. So I am coming up with another theory. But if they teleported wouldn't they have all appeared in the same place? And I know if I had made teleportation I would have thoroughly tested it before using it to send men into enemy territory."

"What if they're HYDRA, Tones? They would be dumb enough to try something like this. I know you want them to be who they say they are but what if it's a trick?"

"I'm hurt, Uncle Rhodey, HYDRA? I would never." Both men jumped turning to see Peter leant against the doorway, melancholy surrounding his expression. "Whilst they would love to have me and quite a few attempts have been made to acquire me, I would never give them the satisfaction. You should give them more credit too. They kept themselves hidden for nearly 70 years."

"Of course you would say that and what's with this uncle business?" Rhodey snapped.

Peter glanced at Tony before tearing his eyes away. Ignoring Rhodey's question. "Contrary to your belief I don't _ want _ to be here. I would have stopped her if I had known. We have to leave as soon as possible." He hissed angrily. Why was this so hard? "She can't get attached or it will be impossible to get her to come back with us. She'll want to stay. But I can't let her. It's not safe."

"What about you? Do you want to stay?" Tony asked curiously.

"It's far too late for me. I was screwed the moment I realised where we are. I'm already attached." Peter confessed bitterly. His eyes flickered to Tony again.

"So you are really Peter?"

"I had homework. You never told anyone I turned you down. That day in my bedroom sat on my twin bed, I said no. I had homework." Peter still didn't make eye contact. He slid down the wall, cradling his head in his hands. Resting them on his knees.

"But you came anyway." Tony stepped closer.

"Yeah. Couldn't let the bad things happen, Mister Stark. Could I?" Tears began pooling in his eyes. This was so hard, to see him again. He was so healthy too, a stark contrast to the way Peter had seen him last.

"You got big." 

"Taller than you, old man." He snarked, barely looking up.

"Never." Tony sighed when yet again Peter failed to make eye contact. "Pete, what's going on you've barely looked at me."

"Can't get attached, Mister Stark." The boy whispered.

"Why? Do I become a dick or something?" Tony deflected. 

Peter shook his head, a ghost of a smile hidden beneath the tears now falling freely down his face. "Bit late for that sir." He deadpanned.

Oh.  _ Oh.  _

There was silence as no one spoke.

"How long?"

He shook his head again. Tony didn't need a deadline. He wouldn't burden him like that. He wanted to have Tony wrap him in a hug and tell him it would all be alright. Like he had done for Harley and Morgan. Like he never had the chance to do with him.

"It doesn't matter. You'll still be gone when we go back." He gave a small laugh at both men's inquisitive expressions. "Back to the Future is a load of crap, Mister Stark."

"Still Mister Stark huh?"

Peter gave him a sheepish shrug, "Sorry."

Silence filled the air. Nobody wanting to address the elephant in the room. Tony spoke first. "If you come upstairs for dinner will the space-time continuum blow up or anything equally catastrophic?"

Peter shook his head, a proper smile breaking out as his stomach growled giving away just how hungry he was. "No." 

"Right, then, upstairs."

"Tones are you sure you can trust this guy?"

"Yes, Rhodey. I trust him. " He said firmly. "Our Peter's been acting weird all afternoon. According to Happy, it started the same time you three dropped in. You sure it won't hurt him?"

"Yeah. He knows I'm here. Or at least the 2.08% of him that's part spider knows I'm here. Maybe not that we're the same person, essentially, but that there is someone else like him nearby. That's why he's on edge. He's going to start investigating if you don't loop him in."

"Someone else like him?"

"Another Spider-man."

"There's more spiderlings? That's a scary thought."

"Future business, Dad. Need to know."

"Dad?!" Rhodey cried out. Today was too weird. 

Tony would deny it till the day he died but that had a nice ring to it. Peter was a good kid who had seen too much in his short life but was still so kind. If this man was any indication he would become a great man. He would be proud to have been Peter's dad.

"Fuck. Uhh, Sorry. We started calling you that for Morgan. Couldn't all call you different things now could we? Then it just stuck. He can know about us. Like I said Back to the Future is a load of crap. Nothing we do should affect our present. At least according to Professor Hulk. Plus I was always a good investigator, if I do say so myself, he'll find us even if you hide us. He'll get answers, and my methods weren't always the safest."

"Professor Hul- I don't wanna know. What the hell, dude?" Rhodey muttered. 

"Didn't Mister Stark mention my inability to keep a secret? That hasn't changed." Peter laughed, but it sounded empty.

"Haha. Do you three want to come up for dinner then? Just realised it's been too long since you ate. Don't know about the others but I know you're hungry. Pete and I just ordered pizza and that's after the half a dozen snacks he's devoured since he got here. You must be starving."

"Yeah, I could eat." His statement was punctuated by a loud growl emanating from his stomach. "Hawaiian with garlic aioli?" He questioned. Would Mister Stark know his pizza?

"Of course… good to know you're still a heathen."

"Thanks,  _ Dad _ . Man, for geniuses we really were blind weren't we?" He gave Tony a small smile as the man gave him a hand up off the floor.

"Blind about what?”

"Never mind. Uncle Rhodey sees it. Right?"

"Right…?"

"Nevermind I'll get the fam. Ready to properly meet your daughter?"

"You sure she's mine? She didn't even see me when she stumbled in."

He winced, Morgan was 4 the last time she'd seen him so he wasn't surprised. "Watch her in the lab for an hour then ask me that again. I'll go get my other half and the devil's spawn."

"Ok, and why is my daughter the devil's spawn?"

"Who said I was talking about Morgan? We'll meet you upstairs."

* * *

"Hey."

Morgan rolled over. Nearly toppling out of the small hospital bed. A set of strong arms caught her, rolling her back on to the bed.

"Whoa. Careful there, Mo."

"Go way." She mumbled groggily "M' sleeping."

"We need to eat, sweetie. It's dinner time. You can sleep again after. There's pizza." The arms sang teasingly.

"Why?" She moaned, "you evil person, you choose your weapons well." She opened one eye to glare at  **Peter** .

"I'll let you wake up Harley." He offered.

"Using carrots now?" The man grunted, from the opposite side of the bed.

"Huh, too late Momo. Both of you. Pizza. Upstairs. Now."

"Nuuggg. Pass." Both curled up again, snuggling into each other on the thin mattress.

"You both get to meet mini-me."

That had them both scrambling up.

"Good to know you love me more than pizza." He turned to leave the room. "Chop, chop people let's go." He called from the elevator.

"His mini-me? Is that ok? Like I won't fade away or anything will I?"

"Dragon Ball Z rules, honey. You'll be fine."

"You're basing this off a really old anime?"

"I have proof. You, however, have no leg to stand on Marty Mcfly. That movie is older than the show. Now come on."

"Teenage Peter. This is so cool. I bet he was awesome."

"You saying Pete isn't cool anymore?"

"He's great, but  _ teenage _ Peter? Gold mine. Just think of the blackmail!"

"Oh, I am. Last one up gets the crust."

"You are on."

* * *

"Oh, uh… you didn't say we had company, Mister Stark?"

"Yeah… they uh dropped in earlier. Gonna be here a while. Well until we find a way to send them home."

"The detour?"

"Yeah, they kinda surprised me. Popped out of thin air. Literally."

Peter watched as Tony put a dozen pizzas down on the coffee table. He was surprised they weren't using the table in the dining room if they had guests. He knew one was Colonel James Rhodes otherwise known as War Machine. He was still reeling from when Mister Stark had introduced them in the lab earlier. Ned was going to flip when he hears this, he had met War Machine.

"How many people are we expecting? That's a lot of pie." He queries.

"Only 4 but I'm willing to bet one of them could give you a run for your money. You finish your homework? Don't want Aunt Hottie to say I distracted you."

"It wasn't you distracting me today."

"Something was more distracting than the Great Tony Stark? Do tell."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

As if on cue the elevator bell rang through the room. The doors opened and the older Peter casually strolled into the lounge.

"Person." Mini Pete said, giving Tony a meaningful look. As the mystery man came closer his Spider anxiety thing buzzed through the back of his neck. Man, he needed a better name for it. It was the same buzz that had started as a dull drone just before Happy had dropped him off. The same buzz that had been both bothering and puzzling to him but at the same time it was... comforting? He identified the strange combination of emotions as the man sat on the couch opposite him, just across the room. Peter eyed him carefully, his anxiety whatever usually only went off near threats.

The man if he could be called that couldn't be more than 25, still very young. There was something very familiar in his appearance. The man gave him an all-knowing smirk making Peter feel as if he had heard every word he had said and possibly knew what he was thinking.

"This is… uhh… what do you want to be called?" 

Tony didn't know? What on earth? How could you trust someone enough to invite them into your house but not know their name?

"The truth, best if it comes out now."

"Ok… should I go…uhh... how do you want to do this?"

The man rolled his eyes at the billionaire, "No dramatic introduction? Not gonna lie kinda disappointed. Hi. I'm Peter Parker. Brought to you by the joys of time travel."

He looked to Tony who was rolling his eyes. "Where did this theatrical flare come from? Snark too. Where's it coming from? Have you been holding out on me?" Tony quipped. 

Peter was not amused. "What is this? Some kind of joke? Haha Mister Stark. What's going on?" He stuttered. Peter Parker?! This wasn't funny.

The man who was claiming to him smirked. He stood up, removed his shoes and crawled barefoot, Spider-man style up the living room wall before sitting cross-legged on the ceiling. Peter blinked. What the absolute FUCK?! "No joke. I'm the real deal kiddo, but you already knew that. Ask me anything. I know you're curious."

"I -I don't… what? How?" Peter was stumped. What?! His brain was short circuiting as he tried to put the pieces together in a way that made sense. There were thousands of questions running through his mind. "How?" How was the question he settled on.

"The roof? Same way as you. Being flung about in time? No idea. This trip was courtesy of our sister."

"You're me. Wait, our sister?"

"Yeah, Morgan. It's a long story. They'll be up soon. She can't wait to see teenage Petey, so please try to keep the blackmail material to a minimum. I have a reputation to uphold."

Blackmail material? He sent his doppelganger an affronted glare.

"Hey, did I get enough pizza? I seem to remember you eating a lot." Tony remarked.

"More than enough old man."

Tony pulled a face at him."You sure that's not too much."

"Well, I still feel like I did the morning after my 21st, and Thor drank me under the table. Starving. Plus, my Harley would never let good pizza go to waste so we should be good." **Peter** grinned cockily.

"Thor drank you under the table?" Tony berated, a disappointed look on his face. He must have been long gone cause he would never have allowed that. He was also slightly worried by the front the older Peter was putting up. It reminded him too much of his press persona.

His Peter, on the other hand, was stunned. He drank with THOR?! That was awesome. He tried to imagine Thor or Captain America playing beer pong or quarters. The drinking games he had seen in movies and the few actual parties he had been to. He wondered how much alcohol it took for him to get drunk. Quite a bit he would imagine. 

He was brought back from his pondering by his counterpart's cry of protest. "Hey! Don't give me that 'I'm very disappointed with you' look. I was the only kid who didn't use their fake ID  _ and  _ I can count all my hangovers on one hand."

"Ahh. But you  _ had  _ a fake ID." Tony pointed out.

**Peter** rolled his eyes, "I was 21 and only had 6 months of college left! And I was drinking  _ with  _ supervision."

"Thor does not count as supervision."

"No, but Aunt May, Uncle Rhodey and what was left of the Avengers do. Hypocrisy doesn't suit, Mister Stark."

"Alright." Tony backed down, with his past he really shouldn't judge, it was hypocritical. "So long as you were safe."

"Anyway did you kidnap my mini-me or have you conned our unsuspecting aunt into believing you're a responsible adult?"

"Haha, No. Peter is stuck here for the weekend, May is out of town. I don't want to know how much trouble you can cause when there's two of you."

"It's a good thing you haven't met your daughter and my Harley; trust me when I say that us?" He waved a hand between him and his younger self. "We are the least of your worries. I'm the one who blows up the workshop the least, hell, I even have a better track record than you, old man."

"Who are you calling old, Big?"

"Uh, no. Just no. No way am I going to be called 'big'. No way in hell." 

"Underoos then?" Tony teased.

"Hey! No. I graduated. 2.0 nowadays. Courtesy of Nick Fury."

"Two-Point-Oh?"

"Someone had to step up."  **Peter** shrugged.

* * *

"So what are we calling you? I'm not calling you both Peter."

**Peter** just smirked. "Well I don't have an alias, I'm almost as famous as you these days. Not that I was ever very good at going undercover; I can't lie to save my life. He can be known as kid. I'm keeping Peter." 

Peter listened to the banter Tony and his elder were throwing around. They seemed to know each other really well. He was curious what kind of relationship they had or would have in the future. He scowled when he was called a kid.

"Hey! Pete. I believe that's my job and off the roof or you're cleaning it." A new teasing voice rang out. The owner of the voice was smirking at his affronted expression. The man was with a young girl and followed in by Colonel Rhodes. Peter estimated she was younger than him by 3 maybe 4 years and the man was in his mid to late twenties he guessed. He had an arm wrapped around the girl's shoulders in a brotherly fashion as they swaggered out of the elevator. Both making a beeline for his double.

"You actually have a job? Stop the presses! Tell the media! The great, the amazing, the invincible Harley Keener has a job! Pray tell, what is this job?"  **Peter** teased back. Dropping down from the ceiling straight on to the couch.

"Keeping both your scrawny asses alive. By the way, you forgot how devilishly handsome and wildly sexy I am, as you can attest.  _ And  _ if you've forgotten I've spent the last week running around covering for Mom while she's in London. I work." Harley grabbed a box from the table and handed it to the girl before grabbing one for himself and  **Peter** .

"My apologies, "  **Peter** smirked, taking the offered pizza. "Allow me to introduce my sister Morgan Hope Stark, and Harley Keener. My family, without whom I likely wouldn't have made it to my 21st birthday."

Stark? Tony had a daughter in the future? Would he still want him around if he had his own kid? If the time travellers were staying long would he have to leave? He didn't want to leave, he liked lab days and movie nights. He didn't want that to go away. He was ashamed to admit it but he had begun to see Mister Stark as a father figure kind of thing. Just someone he could begin to count on, someone he could talk to, someone who was there.

Tony hadn't noticed Peter's mood shift, instead, studying his daughter with fascination. She was beautiful. He hadn't gotten a good look at her earlier, and it looked like she had tried to clean up. Putting up her long, dark hair and straightening out her nice clothes. "Morgan Hope huh?" Tony repeated quietly. "Nice name."

"It should be. You gave it to me. Long time no see, Dad." She smiled sadly, "hate to say it but I liked you better grey."

"Nonsense. I'm Tony Stark. I don't do grey." He snarked resorting back to his usual defence mechanisms.

"Yeah you do. You're Tony Stark. You do everything." Morgan reminded the room. She jumped when Harley started choking on his mouthful of pizza.

"So true." Colonel Rhodes sniggered. 

"What?" She whined, unaware of what was so funny. To be honest, Peter didn't really understand either. That just made Harley laugh harder until he caught the multiple glares being aimed his way. He quickly tried to compose himself while looking sheepish. "Rhodey!" He coughed, "Get your mind out of the gutter!" 

That earned a head slap from  **Peter** .

"What?" Morgan askes again, "He really can do pretty much anything, even the impossible." Her innocence was incredible.

"Yeah, he always did do the impossible."  **Peter** agreed fondly. "Runs in the family apparently Miss 'I'm going to do what I have been told not to and re-invent time travel'. Impossible." 

"Re-invent? I got the impression this was a lab accident." Rhodey questioned them.

"Rhodey, " Harley explained patiently. "If it were a lab accident why were none of us in the lab?"

Rhodes shut up at that, man had a point.

"Yeah, no. This isn't our first rodeo with time travel, well mine anyway. I helped Tony when he did it in '23. First time I've travelled time though, kinda surreal to be honest." Harley clarified.

"I invented time travel?" Tony doubted unbelievingly. Harley had mentioned it whilst pushing him in the elevator but he hadn't really been paying notoriety. Time travel is science fiction. He would never waste time on such a childish ambition. There was no way he would invent time travel. Hollywood had all too well illustrated the dangers of time travel. No good respecting scientist or engineer would do it; it was too dangerous. "Why in hell would I make time travel? Do you get how dangerous this is?"

"Yes, we do. You did too." Harley reached out and took  **Peter's** hand. "But some things are worth it. Believe me, this trip is unsanctioned. All files, equipment, particles, even the doodles on the fast food napkins were supposed to have been destroyed. It was strictly a one-off."

"What on earth was worth it?" He demanded.

"Surely you've noticed,"  **Peter** said, sounding almost disappointed. "No? You notice everything!" He glanced at the other time travellers, "We can't change our past but we can change your future and honestly, we can't make it worse. Sorry. Like I said before 'Back to the Future' is a load of bull shit. "

"What? Peter, I'm not following."

"How old was I when you broke into my garage?" Harley asked understanding where  **Peter** was going with this, he just wasn't sure if now was the time or the place.

"Not sure 9 or 10 maybe?"

"I was 10. That would make me how old? Compared to Pete."

"14… but Pete is 16, which means… you're too old. How are you older than him?" Tony was suddenly on edge. Doubting their story for the first time. He really needed answers.

"Something happened that we weren't prepared for. We fought. We fought long and we fought hard, but in the end, it didn't make a difference." **Peter** started.

"Um whilst I'm all for what you want to do, sweetheart but should everybody hear this. It's not exactly PG." Harley cut him off eyeing mini Peter.

"What? Oh right." 

"Yeah, more like R18 material. Why doesn't Peter take Morgan on a tour of New York in the morning and we can share tales then."

"Right. Yeah."  **Peter** agreed.

"Hey! I'm you! I should get to know. Why won't you tell me what's going to happen?" Peter exclaimed.

"No! You are not me. I  _ was _ you. You are not me. I've changed, perhaps, not for the better."  **Peter** said not leaving it open for discussion. "I can't let the bad things happen. You wouldn't either and you know it. That includes protecting you from  _ my  _ ugly truths. You have your own future to make your own mistakes. You don't need to burden yourself with my mistakes. Harley's right you don't need to know."

"Then how will I not make the same ones? I need to know!" He demanded heatedly.

"Not like this. You'll find out I can almost guarantee it. I just want you to have a happier ending. Let me give you that."

"But!" Peter gave up. He was literally fighting with himself. He wasn't going to get anywhere with this. What would have him so riled up that he would want to hide it from himself? Time travel sounds so  _ cool _ . It must have been. I mean really! It was every engineer's dream to be the one who cracks it. Hell, he and Ned must have dozens of old blueprints and half baked ideas stowed away places. He would find out what these three were hiding. If he was to be stuck with the girl tomorrow he would see if she would tell him anything on their 'tour'.

Nobody spoke as they continued to eat their pizza. Morgan spoke first. She didn't get much time with her dad so she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. When she dreamed up this trip she never thought about what she would ask if she got the chance. She was not going to waste this precious time waiting for her brother to figure out how to talk to himself. Ha.

"So are you going to help us fix our time travel stuff?"

"I'll try but no promises. Honestly, it sounds dangerous plus we probably won't have all the technology needed to create it. No promises."

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She swooped around the coffee table to tackle Tony in a big hug, flinging her arms around his neck. He floundered in her embrace, clumsily putting his arms around her waist and awkwardly patting her back.

"So how did this happen, then? How did you get here?" Rhodey started to interrogate them. Watching Morgan carefully as Tony tried to detach himself from her octopus-like grasp. Morgan tried to hide her hurt as he finally succeeded. Pushing her away. She took the hint and moved back to her spot with her two oblivious brothers.

"She did it." Both of them immediately threw their sister under the bus. This was in no way their fault they weren't going down for this. She sent her worst glare to them, unfortunately, both were immune.

"What?"  **Peter** defended "You made your bed sleep in it." It was hard to understand when he had almost half a pizza stuffed in his mouth.

"Children, both you, cowards too. Throwing me to the wolves."

"Hey! Both of us have been chewed out by Dad before. It's your turn, sweet pea. But hey! They're nice wolves. Mostly."

"Is the world about to end? Is that what this is?" Rhodey wondered out loud. "You three are here to destroy the world."

"Well, we lived through it once we could do it again."  **Peter** stated matter of factly earning a glare from Harley.

"Peter!" Morgan scolded. It was an odd sight a twelve year old telling off an adult. 

"What? Too soon?" He smiled sweetly. A picture of innocence.

She glared at him.

"Yeah, your right the day Harley and I take over S.I is the day the world ends." He grins. Tony wholeheartedly agreed with Peter, that would be the day.

"That was not what you were referring to. Besides M.J and I will run the company. You two wouldn't know an expense report if it hit you in the face. M.J already does like 60% of the CEO work. Mom retires next year." She huffs. 

He just rolls his eyes.

"Yeah? That's only because keeping you out of trouble is a full time job. As you have proven. Also jokes on you. This little stunt of yours sets back your world domination schemes back a good decade at least. MJ will be so disappointed." He teased.

"Sorry, you expect us to believe a 10 year old made time travel?" Rhoady scoffed unbelievingly.

Morgan's expression darkened. She was sick and tired of people disregarding her because she was young. "Excuse me? One I'm nearly 13, not 10. Two just because I'm young that means I'm useless? That my input has no value? And THREE I am a STARK! I have an IQ of nearly 200 and have spent  _ years _ proving my worth. I AM NOT JUST SOME _KID_!" She ranted chewing out the Air Force Colonel.

"Whoa! Down girl! He didn't mean it like that." Harley jumped in, putting an end to her tirade. "I would say sorry but you kinda asked for that. I blame MJ, this was her doing. Mo was the sweetest thing until that moron asked Scary Lady to pick her up from school."

**Peter** just shrugged proudly.

"That makes… a lot of sense…and is…terrifying." Mini Peter agreed, eyeing Morgan warily. 

"Terrifying is right. You should see what happens with the both of them and her mother in the same room. They could bring JJJ to his knees." **Peter** confirmed.

"Yeah, if you'd let us. We would gladly take a crack at that bastard if you'd let us."

"LANGUAGE! My enemies. My battles. Besides whilst he's a pain in my butt he's harmless, all bark, no bite."

"Got a nasty bark though," Harley muttered darkly.

"Ok ok. My kid is smart. Can we get to whatever the hell she did? Even the cliff notes would be nice." Tony requested sternly, they weren't getting anywhere.

"Well, since I'm the best at programming and software, I've been doing maintenance on the A.Is since I was 8. I was combing through FRIDAY's code when I found a hidden file. It was highly corrupted so, well, I fixed it. When I had cleaned it up enough to read it I found I had, like, the  _ holy grail _ of files. One of yours, Dad. I always love finding old code of yours; anyway I skimmed through it. It was the last file you had worked on; the revised time travel GPS specs."

"When was this? The last diagnostic was nearly two months ago!"

"Two months ago! Do you have any idea how badly damaged the file was not to mention how deep it was buried? It took me a month to even read the first page! I only just begun trying to actually put it together again and I wasn't going to use it. I just liked the challenge."

"A challenge?! Why am I not surprised! About any of it. And yes we knew! It was buried for a reason! Cap is in no shape to be chasing Hitler a second time!" Harley hissed. How could she be so stupid?

"I really wasn't going to use it… I didn't think it would work without the Pym Particles. I really wasn't trying for this."

"Hold on, Pym Particles? As in Hank Pym? How the hell did we get him to help?" Tony couldn't see that bitter old coot getting over himself any time soon.

"He was… unavailable. Scott, the guy in the suit, he  _ lent  _ us some." Harley cleared that up. Hank still wasn't their biggest fan but whatever feud he had with the Starks died with Tony.

"Why? Hank and his family hate us. They would never give  _ me  _ access to his super-secret formula."

"Same reason you invented time travel. Family. To bring your family back." Harley reached out and took  **Peter's** hand, squeezing it gently, more for his comfort then  **Peter's** . "Sorry, Mo. I know you're too smart to purposely do something like this."

"Thank you." She rolled her eyes, of course she was smarter than that. She knew enough to finish her research and to test the tech  _ before  _ using it. How the hell  _ did _ this happen? TONY should have known not to run the program. What had gone wrong? "I need TONY. He'll know what happened. If I can get him back I can run through his code and find out why he ran the program. I hadn't even checked it over."

"Who?" Tony queried. He was ignored.

"Hold up. He ran it without your go ahead?"

"Yeah! I asked him to send what he had to my watch, speaking of which where is it?" She glanced at her bare wrist then her father. "I asked him to send it to my watch so I had something to do while my teachers attempted to teach me stuff I've known for years. The program shouldn't have been activated."

"Hey! Who is this TONY person?" Tony asked, getting agitated. He didn't so well with being ignored.

"Her A.I. That doesn't matter. Her watch do you have it? I got HI/RO up and going. Had him try to connect with Karen and TONY. Both are damaged but HI/RO found both of them."

"You have an A.I named TONY?" Tony whispered, honoured they would do something like that. Isn't that why he made JARVIS. To honour the man?

"Yes! Her watch. Where is it?" 

"I uh left it in the lab. I've isolated it though. It was trying to connect to FRIDAY. Didn't want a repeat of Ultron. Peter's is there too. Both looked and smelled a bit fried. Wanted to take a look at them."

"Yeah, none of our A.Is will go Skynet. We need to fix them. Likely can't go home without them. We can head down now, get started on it."

"Dude, it's nearly 10. Can't it wait for tomorrow? You all still aren't looking great. Maybe get more rest." Rhodey suggested pointedly.

"Uh, Uncle Rhodey… don't know if you noticed but we're Starks. We don't sleep. Insomniacs, the lot of us." Harley pointed out.

"Hey! No. You do not get to have my bad habits. Grey area remember? I'm pulling rank. Bedtime. Now. Platypus is right, you all look like crap."

"Mommy's word." Morgan huffed half-heartedly, but nobody protested a second time. They still felt like crap too. Plus Tony was surprised  **Peter** hadn't gone into a food coma yet. He had eaten 5 pizzas already.

"I take it you know where the spare rooms are?"

The time travellers nodded.

* * *

"Morgan, you go with Mini-me to borrow a pair of PJs. His should fit,"  **Peter** ordered.

"Ok." She accepted as she set off down the hall chattering excitedly with his mini-me, no doubt trying to find usable dirt for future use. He shook his head; no doubt he'd have hell to pay if she actually found something. He started to clear up the room, collecting the empty pizza boxes.

Tony must trust them enough to leave them alone because he had left to walk Rhodey down to his room. Probably wanted to be able to have a conversation without being overheard.

"Hey, we'll be ok. We have nearly 800 IQ points between us, we're going home." His boyfriend assured him. Gently taking the boxes from his hand and stacking them neatly on the kitchen counter. Harley wrapped his strong arms around him, something that never failed to comfort him.  **Peter** leaned into his touch, resting his head on his chest. W hilst  **Peter** was taller than Tony he was still almost a head shorter than his boyfriend.

"I know. But what about them?"

"What about them, sweetheart?"

"I want to save them, Harls. Save them the pain and the heartbreak and the suffering. Can we do that?" He looked up to meet his boyfriend's crystal blue eyes. 

Harley melted at that. That was his Peter. Always trying to help, always trying to fix everything. He only saw the good, preferring to overlook the bad. A quality that had gotten him in trouble more than a few times. "I don't know, darlin', I wish I did. We can try. But right now sleep does actually sound like a good idea. We can make a plan of action tomorrow." Harley leaned in, capturing his lips in a kiss. Peter returned it happily. He was going back for more when he was so rudely interrupted.

"Gah! Sorry. I thought Rhodey was pulling my leg earlier. Geez. Uh, There are some pyjamas here for you two." 

"You have the worst timing, old man. I was just getting started." Harley muttered.

"He means thanks, Dad."  **Peter** corrected with a pout. He was also quite put out that he would have to wait to have his boyfriend. They detangled themselves and took the offered clothes.

"Come on let's hit the hay, sweetheart." Peter lent over and gave his boyfriend a peck on the lips as Harley slipped out in hunt of a free bedroom.

"You ok with this?"  **Peter** asked curiously. It didn't really matter either way but still, he wanted Mister Stark's approval.

"Do I get a choice?"

"Not really" he replied honestly.

"I'm the worst person to ask about relationships but you two seem good. With what I know about the both of you, I don't mind. If that's what you're asking. You haven't told me you like boys though so I was a bit surprised, to be honest."

"That's because  _ he  _ hasn't figured it out yet. And he's scared, he'll come to you."

"Good to know. Right your  _ boyfriend  _ is waiting for you off you go. Sleep."

"You need to sleep too. I know and for better or worse I understand. At least try, please." Peter pleaded as he passed his father figure. Tony studied him, searching for his demons wishing he could take them away. He found nothing but sincerity and regret (?) clouding the usually bright chocolate eyes he had learned so well.

"I'll try… no promises. But I'll try. G'night Pete. And uh… I'm proud of you."

"I'm proud of you too. Always have been Mister Stark. You don't get told that enough. We're in your corner, don't forget that."

"Good night, Peter."


	4. Bad Memories and New Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok here's chapter 4. Sorry I forgot to post yesterday. Been a little preoccupied with going back to work.
> 
> As always I love to here from y'all  
> Leave me your thoughts or ideas.
> 
> Thnx Cat  
> 👍🐈😁

Sleep lasted all of 4 hours for **Peter**. His spidey sense was still for want of a better word; ringing. Flaring up at non-threatening little things, the pigeon on the balcony, Morgan passing their room to use the bathroom, it even played up when Harley simply rolled over. Harley for christ's sake! So to say he was a little on edge was an understatement. He lay in bed trying desperately to get back to sleep, it wasn't even 4 am yet.

He gave up when he heard Tony start the coffee machine, a sure sign he was not headed back to bed. Careful to not disturb Harley he climbed out of bed, tiptoeing down the hall to the kitchen. Tony had his back to him trying to find a clean mug. He quietly knocked on the door frame to announce his presence. 

"Rough night?" Tony asked, grabbing another mug.

He shrugged, pulling up a stool. "Still off from the whole falling through time fiasco. Senses won't shut up. Everything's a threat, plus you know old nightmares. Nothing serious."

"Nightmares?"

"Yeah. Standard hero shit. Bad victories, lost battles, the ones you couldn't save. I'm fine mostly; had years to work through my mountain of crap. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Touche."

"Fair." The coffee machine finished its cycle, "Coffee?"

 **Peter's** eyebrows rose. "Coffee? I take it you haven't seen me with coffee yet."

Tony put the second mug down. "No. But now you have me curious…"

"It was ugly. Don't go there. Just remember with spiderlings; we don't like getting wet and-"

"Don't feed you after midnight?"

"Haha. Was that a movie reference, Mister Stark? Didn't know you had it in you." he deadpanned " _And_ we cannot under any circumstances be fed coffee. I'll take hot cocoa though."

"Hot Cocoa?"

"Sorry, it's what Harley calls it. Hot Chocolate, I got it." **Peter** went to get up.

"I know how to make Hot Chocolate. You sit. Talk." Tony went back to the cupboards grabbing the mix.

"I'll pass."

"Wrong answer. Talk. It helps."

"I know. I have a therapist. What do you want me to say though? What do you want to know?"

"I dunno Pete, are you happy? I know I'm not around but were you ok?"

"I wasn't, but I am now."

"Good."

An awkward silence settled in the kitchen.

"What are we doing, Pete? We can't even talk to each other."

"Well...I haven't spoken to you in nearly 9 years… this is kinda hard."

Tony didn't respond. 9 years?! His daughter was 12 that makes her 3 or 4 years old when he died. He wondered how it happened. How could he leave his family? Why didn't he see the risk was too great.

"So soon?"

"No, that was my future, you have your own. In my timeline, you made a hard choice. If I have my way _you_ will never have to make it. There were ramifications for that choice, but I respect it. That choice saved billions of lives, but forgive me if I don't count it as a win."

"You would have been 16. But Morgan is... how?" Things just weren't falling together right.

 **Peter** understood his confusion, their timeline wasn't exactly straight."It's complicated."

"His 16th is next month. I was going to buy him a car… but I'm sure you knew that."

"I know, May talked you out of it."

"I was going to teach him to drive."

"You still can. I gave you more than a few heart attacks. I never really did cars. Don't worry though,x Harley kept your appreciation for the classics alive, he and Morgan constantly talk shop. I'm not the mechanic. That's his place. Harley does the technical stuff, I do the 'squishy' stuff and Mo does the computer stuff. We make a great team, the Three Stark Kids. Made mine and Harley's relationship a bit of a scandal."

"I bet… what was it, brothers turned lovers?"

"Something like that. He was never my sibling, though, it was never like that. He's my best friend, maybe not from day one but he had me by the end of the week. He fit right in with Ned and MJ, despite being nearly 5 years older than us."

"See, that's the part that doesn't make sense. What happened Peter? I need answers."

"And you'll get them but Harls will kill me if I do it without him and frankly he can make me sleep on the couch and you can't."

"Please don't. You're still the innocent 15 year old down the hall in these eyes. Don't shatter my illusion with tales of your… escapades."

"Really? This coming from the self-professed Playboy." **Peter** scoffed.

"Hey! Pepper made an honest man of me." Tony defended himself. A thought occurred to him then. "Pepper is Morgan's mother? Right?"

"Stop sweating. Yes. Mom is Pepper."

"Thank God. I think I've reached my quota of children I can kidnap. She would kill me if Morgan wasn't both of ours."

"Ha! Just wait till you adopt the blue space assassin."

"Not funny, Parker."

"You know something has gone seriously wrong when the truth is closer to fiction but the truth all the same."

"Wait seriously?"

"How did we get here Mister Stark?" **Peter** sighed, "When did the world get so messed up? Not too long ago there were no aliens, no Gods, no superpowers, no magic sorcerers. Nothing interesting had happened since the moon landing all the way back in 1969. What happened? And why now?"

"No idea, kiddo. Not a clue."

"Hm. Not a kid anymore."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Tony could tell **Peter** was beginning to flag. He was looking more like a zombie with every minute that passed. No one so young should look like that. Like they were tired of the sleepless nights spent battling demons.

"Yeah," he agreed sadly. "Hey, let's go to the couch. We can watch some crappy early TV shows. Waste time till your other half gets up and I finally get to know what the hell happened."

 **Peter** yawned in agreement, grabbing his mug and heading toward the living room. Tony flicking off the light as they left. Two minutes later they were settled on opposite ends of the couch as FRIDAY played The Antique Roadshow. Ten minutes later Peter had managed to maneuver himself across the couch and into Tony's side. Tony was surprised and a little shocked by the boy. May had told him Peter could be clingy but the kid always seemed... afraid, almost, of getting too close to him. **Peter** seemed to have no such reservations. The only problem was that this Peter was much bigger than both him and the Peter down the hall. Just as he was going to gently push Peter off him he heard a small snore. Opps too late. He tried to carefully shift into a more comfortable position whilst also trying not to wake the boy.

"Ung?" **Peter** murmured sleepily, "Oh sorry!" 

Crap. So much for not waking him up. **Peter** was immediately scrambling to sit up. Seemingly reverted back to being scared to get close to him. While he didn't openly invite contact with other people he did want it. "It's fine Pete, you were sleeping. Even old spider-babies need sleep. I count that as a win."

"But we're not there yet?" He explained confusedly in his semi-conscious state.

"Where? Never mind. I didn't mind Pete. You look like you need the sleep."

"But?" He protected meekly.

"If it helps you sleep you can use me as a pillow. It's not the end of the world." He angled himself so **Peter** could lean against him again. **Peter** wanted his comfort. And he couldn't blame him; if he saw someone who he never thought he would see again he would also be a little clingy.

Hesitantly **Peter** relaxed back into Tony's side, his ear positioned so he could hear his mentor/father's heartbeat. "This is nice."

"Hmm" 

"We never really did this before. 'Is nice."

"Uh...Yeah." Honestly, he was still uncomfortable but it was better than before. Tony wrapped an arm around him, gently carding through his hair. It felt like the right thing to do. He watched as **Peter's** breaths even out, as he fell asleep again. He looked so young in his sleep, still barely more than a child. He was so strong, so brave. Tony continued to work through the tiny knots in the boy's hair, it was comforting. 20 minutes later Tony was sleeping too.

* * *

"You wake either of them and I will kill you," Harley signed to his sister. It was a great way to communicate behind people's backs ASL was practically extinct by '31. Plus teaching her languages was a great way to keep her overactive brain occupied. She and Pete's mini-me had just gotten up. Probably woken by the smell of the pancakes and bacon Harley had started. 

He had woken up at around 6.00 and found his boyfriend missing. Worried, he went out to find him and found **Peter** still curled up next to Tony. Knowing that Peter had probably gotten up in the wee hours this morning he opted to let him sleep. Pressing a kiss on **Peter's** sleeping head he went to go check some things in the lab. After throwing some stuff together he left to start breakfast.

He was pleased to find bacon and eggs that were in date as well as some decent baking supplies. He got to work, making twice what he would usually. A lot of people forgot that his boyfriend needed to eat at least twice as much as the average person. He was so used to cooking double that he would often forget not to when **Peter** wasn't there resulting in loads of leftovers. Right now he had two Peters to feed, ergo twice as much. He didn't mind though, it was one of many talents he had from his small-town background. Cooking, driving and gardening were the big ones, plus he had a healthy respect for large animals and electric fences; something city folk just couldn't seem to grasp.

He was efficient in the kitchen so it didn't take long before he started to fry the batter. The sweet aroma was soon filling the halls. It was enough to drag the two youngsters out of bed. He was holding off on a fresh pot of coffee, that was the fastest way to wake up Tony, Lord knows the man rarely slept.

Morgan and Peter joined him quietly in the kitchen, closing the door quietly behind them both watching him cook.

"You hungry Sweet Pea?"

"I could eat. Pancakes?"

"Yeah. Dad has an overstocked kitchen; who knew?"

"He always had a stocked kitchen; we used to bake together all the time."

"Yeah but that was the lake house. Mom kept it stocked. This is New York. New York was never stocked. My guess is it's Petey's first sleepover and Dad went overboard."

"Yeah but..."

Peter was uncomfortable as the siblings continued their speculating. He had clearly been forgotten in their conversation. It was also clear they were close and he couldn't help feeling like he didn't belong. He was trying to sneak back out of the kitchen when Harley turned to him. "Petey! Where are you off to?"

Petey? Really?

"I was just… uh... " he pointed awkwardly to the door backing toward it.

"Hey! Nuh-uh. I know you're hungry. I've been cooking for you for the past 5 years. Sit."

"Uh… "

"Just sit. Nutella with bacon _not_ crispy. How you like it. Sit."

Sensing he was fighting yet another losing battle he gave in accepting a place at the breakfast bar. He watched helplessly as Harley loaded up his plate. It smelled beyond great, for someone who rarely had a decent home-cooked meal he couldn't wait to dig in, he was just a little self-conscience of being in a room with two people who likely knew far more about him than he would like. Hell, they probably knew more about him then he did. Plus he was still unsure of future-him's relationship with Harley. I mean the man knows how to cook him his perfect breakfast. Not many people knew about the Nutella. Most thought it was gross (it wasn't).

"Uh, thanks."

Harley just smirked knowingly, it was a little unnerving. The man winked at him before turning to start the coffee. Moments later he got results.

"Harley! You better not have started without me!" **Peter's** voice rang out from the living room.

"Hey, you're here. Or were here 15 years ago. Either way, there's a Peter Parker at my table." He shouted back to his boyfriend, a smirk still painted on his face.

"Really?" **Peter** appeared in the doorway. "You traded me in for the younger model? I'm hurt, babe."

Babe?

"Yes well, he is very cute, nice butt. What?" Harley asked. "Morgan agrees." 15-year-old Peter went beetroot. 

I'm sorry _What_? What was happening?

"Hey! No. You leave me out of this. Eww." Morgan knew where this was going and she wasn't having any part of it.

"Really? Is that so?" **Peter** gave his boyfriend an unimpressed glare.

"Just an innocent observation. He is a bit small though… Needs fattening up." Harley teased, getting up from his seat to pile another plate full of food.

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed beyond confused by the ongoing exchange. But he wasn't small! He gaped at the… were they a _couple?_ What the HELL?

"Oi! I'll have you know I was never _small._ " **Peter** advanced on his boyfriend, getting dangerously close.

"Really? Do tell…" Harley pressed himself onto **Peter's** chest, going in for the kill. Pulling **Peter** in for a kiss. The couple seemed to have forgotten they weren't alone.

Morgan sighed, typical. And they were scaring Mini-me. "Hey!" She shouted. The couple jumped apart remembering their audience. "PG! Both of you! How did I get stuck as your chaperone? I'm 12."

"Sorry, Mo." They apologized together. 

"Mornin' Sweetheart." Harley gave him a small peck on the cheek, handing him the plate.

"What are you two doing in here? My poor Spiderbaby looks like he's going to throw up. You didn't poison him did you, Keener?" Tony finally joined them in the kitchen. He sauntered in knowing full well what had happened. He grabbed a plate and helped himself to the food on the stove.

"No, Dad. He just had an unhealthy dose of PDA from my idiot brothers. Apparently, I'm stuck as babysitter." Morgan pouted, her arms folded across her chest as she glared at her brothers thoroughly unimpressed.

Dad. That was a new one. It felt strange to be called that. He had never wanted to be a father.

"Hey! Don't give us that. You know what today is, or would have been! Just because you threw a spanner in the works does not mean we can't enjoy it." Harley informed his sister. 

Tony watched curiously as the blood drained from her face as she got to whatever page the couple were on. This was getting good; better than every reality show he'd ever seen. Peter was also very pale and still gapping like a goldfish. Maybe they had broken him; was it even possible to break yourself?

"That's right" **Peter** agreed. "By the way, you make a really bad wingman. I'll be warning Gwen against ever asking you for help or advice." He told her while waving a fork at her.

"Guys I'm so sorry! It was an accident; oh my God! I ruined everything didn't I? " Morgan stammered apologies. She really had fucked up. "Oh my God! All your plans. Fudgesticks!" She swore.

"Hey! Relax, we get back in time and you'll be forgiven," **Peter** told her. "But everything has to be _perfect_." He threatened.

Morgan gulped. They had been planning _things_ for over 3 months. She _had_ to make it up to them?

"Right." Tony dropped into the seat next to his Peter startling him out of his stupor. "I haven't a clue what you're talking about but it sounds important. But please some of us are trying to eat. And if you want to continue flirting, there's plenty of rooms to choose from. Now, I just have one question… why is there… Nutella at the table? We're having pancakes?"

"Tony… I missed you." Harley sighed happily, it wasn't what they had planned, but to him, it was the greatest gift he could have asked for. He'd let Madame Secretary suffer for a bit though, she did deserve it.

* * *

"Right. Under 18's have vacated. Storytime!"

Tony marched into the Lab. Both **Peter** and Harley had obviously been stalling for time. They had successfully managed to distract him by starting on their watches. Future tech was really impressive. He had still managed to find areas of improvement but it was still leagues ahead of him. But alas now he had caught on, and both were dreading the needed conversation. **Peter** had sent the younglings off nearly an hour ago.

The couple shared a hesitant look. You know that look that people have when they communicate without saying a single word? They were doing that.

"Ok, you were all for sharing yesterday. What is going on? Storytime. Now. I'm not making time travel until I know what was so damn important." He was bluffing, they all knew it. But he understood, they were scared. He got that, he just, he needed to know.

"Tony, this story doesn't have a happily ever after." Harley tried to explain. How did you tell someone about their own death? He knew he wouldn't want to have a timer to watch as it counted down to his possible doom. But then he thought about the pain in Tony's eyes after the Decimation, the way Peter's ghost had haunted him then never actually getting to see him again. The battlefield didn't count. "We just don't want to hurt anyone."

Tony had nothing to say to that. He didn't know what the future holds. I guess the question was, did he want to? Yes. He decided. Yes, he did. If it meant a better future for Peter, for the daughter he was yet to raise. Whatever it takes. He would do it. "I need to know. I understand that this is hard for all of you. But what if I can fix it? You said the future wasn't set. Was that all a lie? Can whatever this is be fixed?" He argued.

 **Peter** was about to explain the intricacies of their particular brand of time travel when he visibly froze, grabbing an old pair of we shooters from the lab table. Just as Tony was going to ask what was wrong, golden sparks filled the room. Spinning as if they were drilling a hole in the air. The circle widened, growing to the size of a small door. So this was what Peter was reacting to. He didn't even have enough time to call his own gauntlet before two men stepped into the room.

Tony watched in awe as Peter moved. It was beautiful. Like watching Natasha in a fight. Each move was practised and measured. Careful to keep from harming their unexpected guests. Within seconds they were webbed against the far wall. Neither were knocked out or even seriously harmed, just winded.

"Jesus Fucking _Christ_ Strange!" Peter shouted furiously. "Haven't you ever heard of _knocking?!_ " He was pacing now. He already didn't like the guy, now he gives him a heart attack. Adrenaline was still rushing through his veins; he was trying to walk it off.

"You guys never could use the door," Harley muttered. 

"Really! Didn't they teach wizard etiquette when you were taught?! You can't just apparate into someone's house! It's just as rude as knocking down the front door." **Peter** continued his rant, huffing in annoyance. 

"Did he really just start quoting 'Harry Potter'?" The intruder with the obnoxious looking red cloak asks.

Peter glares at him.

"Yes, _Dumbledore_. I did."

"Hey, Pete? Do you think you could introduce me to your new friends." Tony called, with his gauntlet at the ready.

"Dad, this is Dr Stephen Strange" Peter gestured to the man with the cloak. " and yes that is his real name." Peter deadpanned. "And this," He said, indicating to the squat Asian dude. "Is Wong. As far as I know, it's just Wong. Dad, meet the wizards."

Strange let an indignant huff out.

"Don't know who you are kid, but we're not wizards. We are _Sorcerers_."

"I know. But you and I weren't on the best of terms like _ever_. Therefore you're a Wizard." Peter said as if that was obvious.

"We've never met?!" Strange argued. 

"Don't play the idiot Strange. It doesn't suit you." **Peter** scolded. His voice was icy. Tony had never heard Peter speak like that. It was so harsh, so condescending; nothing like the playful snark he had seen earlier. 

"You and I both know why you're here and we both know that the lovely _necklace_ you have on isn't decorative. Hasn't anyone told you not to wander around with an infinity stone?" He hissed.

"How do you know about that?" Strange demanded.

Wong was free now and working on freeing Strange. Nobody saw fit to help them. It was their own fault really. If they had come in the normal way they wouldn't be webbed up. 

"Because that _thing_ ruined our lives. Do you have any idea how dangerous they are? Infinity Stones?" Harley challenged. "How many lives were devastated because of them?"

"Impossible. The stone has been in the possession of the Kamar-Taj for the last century." Strange stubbornly argued.

"Well, you won't always have it, will you? You haven't seen the end of the world. I have. I was there and right at the heart of it, at the very center was that stone. That stone and its siblings. " **Peter** shot back, his anger fading as the adrenaline disappeared. Once he had calmed down, he came and sat near his boyfriend. **Peter** huffed tiredly, it was clear they didn't like the guy. Harley decided he better take charge before **Peter** punched the guy. 

"If it wasn't clear yet we're from the future and we don't like you. So if you don't mind stating your business here, Doctor. We have stuff to do." Harley asked more patiently than he felt. Multiple board meetings had improved his ability to keep his cool. "Just tell us what you want Stephen?"

Stephen obviously didn't like being addressed like this. Scowling at Peter, "Something here has damaged the time stream. I intend on finding it."

"Yeah, that would be us. Sorry." Harley told the wizards unapologetically. "Can we move on? We were trying to work on getting home."

"How did you get here?" Strange asked. That's what he wanted to know.

"Not exactly sure yet likely fell through the Quantum Realm. We were working on it." Harley replied, "What's it to you?"

"Like he said, the Time stream was disrupted. When you arrived it was damaged. The tower was at the centre of the damage, my colleague and I are here to assess what was done and if there is any threat from what caused it." Wong stated diplomatically.

"The Quantum Realm?" Strange muttered that was impossible. "How?"

Harley ignored him. "So… what's the verdict doc? You here to send us home?"

"No. The time stream is too damaged. It will repair itself like it always does. But sending you back now would have catastrophic consequences."

"You better not be telling me this was a one-way trip, Strange. There is a mother missing her children right now. A mother who has lost far too much already. We are going home." Peter hissed threateningly, advancing on the Doctor. Tony had never been scared of Peter but at that moment Peter looked dangerous. Not like the angry puppy, he was often compared too.

"It's not impossible. But right now it's too dangerous. You must wait until the time stream is stable again." Doctor Strange repeated not backing down. Tony was impressed, that must take some big brass ones.

"How long?"

"I don't know. This hasn't exactly happened before. My guess? A year, maybe more."

"No. No. We need to get back before then. It will be more dangerous to stay. Trust me." **Peter's** anger faded showing just how terrified he really was.

"You can't!" Wong shouted. "If you leave before the Time Stream is stable the Space-Time Continuum could collapse. That could result in the timelines merging or one or _both_ to be erased. By coming here you have weakened the walls of our reality, making us vulnerable. You leave and those walls could come crashing down." He levelled **Peter** with a stern glare making it clear this was not up for discussion. His word was final. 

"Hey," Tony stepped in. "It's just a year. Is that so bad? You can stay here if that's what you're worried about. One year of an all-expense paid vacation."

"That's not what he's talking about. He wasn't kidding when he said we were there when the world ended." Harley gave the Wizards a hefty glare back.

 **Peter** turned to his boyfriend, "This was Parker Luck. Say it. It's real."

" _Peter_ , darlin, for the last time, Parker Luck™ doesn't exist." Harley sighed, exasperated.

"It _does_ . I have proof. First-ever field trip? I get lost and end up in some creepy ass lab where a radioactive spider that had been _experimented on_ bites me. A bite that nearly killed me. Instead, it turns me into some mutant freak. Second field trip- I very nearly blew up an important national _historical_ monument. I almost died that day too. I had no parachute when I decided it was a good idea to _jump_ over a _helicopter._ Third trip? Aliens attack. I end up in space where I _died._ Then when everything is right again and half the universe has been brought back from the dead. I got on a trip to Europe, got kidnapped by Nick Fury and the good guy was the villain who frames me for his murder. Do you want me to continue? What about that business trip we took where we got attacked by the Lizard or the Press Conference that Osborn decided to crash? And now I'm being told we have to hang around for a year just long enough to relive the end of the world" **Peter** reeled off one by one, there was no shortage of things to go on this list.

"Ok. One. You are not a mutant or a freak. You know I hate it when you talk down on yourself. Two. Having no common sense or a sense of self-preservation does not mean you're cursed. The aliens kinda attacked everybody, that was a coincidence and Nick Fury is a selfish bastard. Three then let's be thankful Morgan didn't end up here alone. We here too, I for one am not going to sit idly by for the world to end." Harley countered.

"Ok! I will unpack all that later, I promise. But can we go back to the bit where the world ends and Peter _dies_ ? Then we can get to Nick Fury _kidnapping him._ " Tony snapped. The mood darkened.

"As I said, I was on a field trip, so I knew automatically something was going to go wrong. Parker luck at it's finest." He gives an unamused laugh. "I was on the bus to MoMA when Squidward decided to fly his space doughnut into New York. They made 2012 look like a training exercise and there was only two of them. They were after that." He nods to the Eye of Agamoto.

"I would die before giving up the Time Stone." The doctor scoffs arrogantly

"I know," **Peter** replied flatly.

"Uhh… who or what was Squidward?" Tony asked before the two of them could get into another pissing contest.

"Ugly ass alien. You aptly named him. He was one of Thanos' 'children, member of the Black Order. Think of him exactly as the name suggests, but telekinetic and homicidal." Peter's disgust was apparent.

"Lovely. Who's Thanos?" 

"Bad guy. Insane, homicidal, purple space grape. He's bigger than anything we had faced before. When he gets here don't underestimate him. He held his own and very nearly won against you, Thor and Cap all at once." Harley cautioned.

Well shit. 

"And as for that 'list' you keep of beings who may be a threat to our world. It is in dire need of an update. Loki is a fly in comparison to what's coming." **Peter** jabbed at Strange. "Speaking of... Thor and Loki popped by yet?"

"Not yet." Dr Strange said carefully. "Should I be expecting them?"

"Yes. Soon. Don't have a date for you but soon. We need them to pick up Dr Banner."

Strange nodded curtly.

"Hold on. Backup a little. Where is my Brucie Bear?"

 **Peter** gives Tony a look he can only hope said 'WTF Brucie Bear?' "Currently he's the Hulk on a trash planet called Sakaar. Been the Hulk ever since Ultron apparently." Peter shrugged. "Anyway, we battled Squidward and his buddy all through Midtown. My job was to protect the wizards. Keep the aliens away from the stone. In the end, Squidward decided if Strange wouldn't give up the stone he would just take Strange. Mister Stark and I went to rescue you. Or rather Mister Stark went to rescue you and I stowed away on the flying space doughnut."

Harley laughed at **Peter's** guilty expression. 

"Um anyway, I came up with the awesome plan to defeat Squidward."

"Uh-huh. Lemme guess this plan was somehow inspired by a movie?" Tony deadpanned.

"Of course, Dad. What did you take me for?" He smiled proudly? Tony was surprised yet again by **Peter's** newfound title for him. He wondered if he would ever get used to it. Couldn't say he didn't enjoy hearing it.

"Anyway, we decided to stay on the Squidward's flying doughnut, see where it would take us. The plan was to ambush Thanos; to beat him on his home turf. That was a bad plan, we would have had better chances if we regrouped with Steve and the others on earth. The ship took us to a planet called Titan. The Guardians boarded just before we arrived."

"And who are these Guardians?" Dr Strange asked. 

"The Guardians of the Galaxy kinda like Space cowboys depending on who you ask. Their leader is a half-human missing kid from Missouri, Peter Quill. Then there's the raccoon who's son is a talking tree with a couple of assassins. Throw in some daddy issues and you have a team. Just a bunch of morons out to save the day. Nebula also travels with them from time to time. She's the blue space assassin you adopted. She's the one who taught me to fight." 

Ok. So Peter hadn't been joking about that. He was starting to think he had a problem of picking up strays.

"We kind of argued for a bit. Thanos had taken one of their members so they were understandably pissed. But we figured it out."

"What happened next wasn't pretty. It really wasn't anyone's fault. But a word of warning. Strange, next time you have a plan, share it with the team. Mainly so we can collectively tell you to fuck off. That plan was never acceptable. We don't trade lives. We aren't chess pieces Dumbledore."

He glared at the Doctor. He should never have put the idea in Mister Stark's head. Mister Stark would have found another way. It's what he did. It's what all Starks did. They made a third option. Peter stood up and started pacing again. 

"Well, that was amazingly cryptic," Tony said as he watched his pseudo kid stress. "Care to elaborate."

"We had a plan. A plan that very nearly worked. Everyone on that planet agreed to that plan. Dr Strange had done some ritual with the Time Stone; something that allowed him to see many different outcomes of the battle ahead. Using that info he made his own plan. His plan involved sacrificing me because he knew just how far you would go to get me back." 

He paused to let that sink in. His breaths were shallow and catching now as he thought about the snap. 'No.' He told himself as he walked faster. Harley caught his hand and gently sat him down again. "It's ok, we're ok." He murmured comfortingly in his ear.

"I would never! I took an oath to save lives. I don't do sacrifice." Dr Strange defended himself. He was horrified he would even consider that an option.

"I'm being a little harsh. It was last resort really. We'd already lost at this point. It was just making sure the right people died to give the others a better chance. You're a man of logic Strange, I won't hold it against you. Doesn't mean I have to like you. When faced with the choice between saving a handful of heroes or saving trillions of others; I would have chosen to save the trillions too."

Tony was in no way ok with this. He watched Peter struggle on through his story, he was shaking like a leaf. It looked to him like he was on the verge of a panic attack. 

"For what it's worth I'm sorry." Strange muttered, lost in thought.

Peter ignored him in favour of trying to finish his tale.

"Thanos got the time stone. He left us on Titan to get the Mind Stone from the earth. It was the last one he needed. We wandered around for about 20 minutes, licking our wounds. Then it started." He stopped, Harley taking the story from there.

"Thanos used the space stone to come to earth. He headed straight for Wakanda. That's where the mind stone was. While you were up in space Bruce had called Steve and Steve had gathered everyone he could to help fight. The best course of action was destroying the Mind Stone. They had brought Vision to Wakanda to see if Princess Shuri could remove it without killing him. Last resort was to destroy Vision with it but they wanted to try removing it first. They fought and lost quickly. Thanos had 5 out of 6 stones it was no surprise they got their asses handed to them."

"What did Thanos want with the stones?" Strange asked. They had said that he was dangerous and insane. They had said he wanted the stones not what this Thanos was going to do with them.

"Thanos wanted to kill half of all life in the universe. His own planet had slowly died due to overpopulation. His solution was genocide. To randomly kill half of all life. With all 6 Stones, he was able to." **Peter** said much more calmly now. His voice was almost robotic. The others were horrified.

"If he needs all 6 why can't we put this one down the garbage disposal?" Tony asked that was the obvious solution.

"As Strange has said he would die before giving up that stone. Since I can't be bothered kicking his ass again today he can keep it. Plus we don't have a big enough garbage disposal. On other words, we can't."

"Then how were they going to destroy the Mind Stone?" Tony challenged.

"Wanda. Her powers came from the Mind Stone. She is powerful enough to destroy it. The only other person who could destroy a stone is Carol Danvers. Her abilities came from the tesseract. She could, in theory, destroy the Space Stone."

"Where is this Carol Danvers now?"

"No idea. While she's human, she hasn't been to earth since the mid-'90s." Harley answered.

"Ok…" This was just getting weirder.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers. He instantly killed 50% of all life in the universe. Turned them all to dust. Everybody lost someone that day. But what most people didn't realise was that Thanos took more than just 50% of life that day. On earth, he took closer to 63%. That was the final estimate. 20% of that didn't come back. Those who had dusted while on the roads or the pilots who went up but didn't come down. Planes fell from the sky, ships were sunk, cars were crashed. I know at least one nuclear plant melted down, surviving personnel managed to contain it fairly well but parts of Kansas were still uninhabitable over a decade later. That mustn't happen here. I won't let it. If only because I need to keep our little sister safe."

"Yeah, that sounds very bad. When was this again?" Strange asked faintly.

"No, shit Sherlock." Tony agreed. He couldn't even imagine destruction of that level. He quickly did the math. On earth that would be close to 4.7 _billion_ lives. What did he mean, didn't come back? Death was usually fairly final, you didn't come back. Harley was talking again so Tony tried to listen to what was being said.

"Everybody who was alive that day remembers it. Where they were. What they were doing. Who they were with. I was with Ma and my little sister, Abbie. We were driving when it happened. Ma was one of the 50% who was killed. She disappeared from behind the wheel. With no driver, the car lost control. We hit a tree at just under 60 miles an hour. Abbie was killed on impact, I had let her take the front seat for a change." The 'it should have been me' went unsaid. He wasn't crying. It might have seemed heartless or apathetic to some but it wasn't. This wasn't a new wound. This had happened well over a decade ago. He had grown and healed, slowly. Don't get him wrong it hurt like hell it always would. But he didn't need to cry anymore. 

I was dead," **Peter** summed up, bluntly. "Well dusted, but for over 5 years we were thought to be dead. A done deal. Life went on as it always does. As it _had too._ You took in Harley, Morgan was born; life went on. Then 5 years later, the universe gave you a wild card. A chance, nothing more than a gamble, to get the Vanished back. You didn't want to take it. You had a family then, people who needed you to come home. This chance risked that family."

"You got everyone back." **Peter** continued. "Unfortunately, Thanos found a way back too. We fought him again, together, this time. With new friends and old. You died and Strange told us it was the only way. I've never believed that, but I respected your choice. At 16 I fought in 3 major battles over 36 hours. From the moment I hopped off that bus to the moment I was allowed to stop fighting. It was the longest 36 hours of my life."

"When the Vanished or the Dusted whatever you want to call it came back. We came back the same age as when we were dusted like we'd been frozen in time. The world had spun on for 5 years while the rest of us hadn't moved a day. It was hard to find your place in a world that had left you behind. May had gotten married, you had kids, a girl from my homeroom had gotten knocked up but that wasn't weird because she had finished college. It was a strange new world, and worst of all you weren't there. We all got on the best we could." Silence fell as **Peter** finished his story.

It took a minute for the heroes to absorb all the info that they had been given. Nobody knew what to say. Tony was freaking out because Peter had _died._ Not only that he had died on another planet. Sure he got Peter back but still, his kid was a war veteran. His kid had PTSD before he was legally allowed to drink. That was not ok.

Both wizards felt like they had heard much more than the time travellers had intended them to. Like they were intruding on a private moment. It was an odd concept for Strange. He had never thought of Stark as anything more than the self-absorbed class-A dick he was made out to be in the press. The man he saw sat just across the room looked genuinely troubled, almost… broken by what the travellers had said. He had no clue how Stark had met them but he seemed to care for them. He was fairly sure the youngest had called him dad at least once. Father was an odd look on the usually aloof Billionaire.

"We must go." Wong abruptly stood. "We must prepare for this Being. If what you say is true the world is in grave danger. Please excuse us." He began creating another portal.

Peter nodded. He respected Wong. The man said few words but often gave sound advice. He probably wanted to try and research Thanos or find something to help them win this time.

"I am sorry for your loss. We must get to work." Strange stood and moved towards the portal. 

"Strange," **Peter** called. The wizard turned. "Is there no way for us to go home sooner?"

"Not that I know of. Time is too fragile at the moment. I will do some research but there may not be a lot I can do."

"That's all we can ask, Doctor." Harley nodded. "Thank you." He called as the portal dissipated.

The clatter of high heels saved **Peter** and Harley from the barrage of questions Tony was no doubt dying to ask. She barely batted an eyelid at the strange men disappearing through a hole in mid-air. Apparently, she had seen so much strange shit that wizards and portals no longer fazed her. It was just another Tuesday as far as she was concerned. "Tony, FRIDAY said you'd be down here. I need you to- oh, she didn't say you had guests." Pepper had noticed **Peter** and Harley were still there. "Tony… what did you do to your intern? 

"Pep… I can explain."

* * *

  
  



	5. New York, New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know a lot of you want the Pepper scene and I promise you shall get it. It is literally the start of the next chapter so stay tuned. More May and Pepper to follow. Hang with me. As always leave your thoughts in the comments section, I love reading them.
> 
> Hope you enjoy chapter 5  
> Thnx Cat  
> 😁🐈👍😅

"...and they're together? As in boyfriends? For how long?"

Morgan was bearing witness to her brother's younger self freak out. She didn't really understand why. Both her brothers were great friends even before they were dating. Besides, there was nothing wrong with it.

"Yeah, they are. Why are you so worked up over this? You've always gotten on with Harley."

They had both been excused whilst the two love birds did the dishes. Tony was also cleaning up the penthouse as Pepper was due home later today.

"But he seems so… how would you like your future self to come and tell you who you should date? I'd like to make that decision myself." Peter struggled to articulate the battle waging inside him.

"Oh, yeah that would be weird. Well I mean you don't have to go date him right now. Like he said last night you're not him and you don't have to be." Morgan tried to reason. 

"But?! I don't even like boys? How?"

"There is nothing wrong with it if that's what you mean. My brothers are very happy together."

"I can see that. I just…" Peter was lost for words. After his outburst at the table, the couple had practically shrugged him off. His counterpart seemed to have expected that response from him. He was just so confused; and angry. He didn't want to be told who he should date. He didn't want his future set for him. But on the other hand, they looked so happy. Stuck someplace they may never be able to leave, he knew Tony wasn't too confident about actually making time travel. But they were happy and together and joking about. They were so strong and seemed to be strongest together. Yeah, all three of them he thought as he watched the young girl (his  _ sister.  _ Could you believe it?). 

Peter jumped seconds before the knock came. Morgan rolled her eyes obviously more accustomed with his 6th sense than he was. The knock was obviously some kind of code. "Petey just get in here!" She shouted.

The only answer was another series of knocks. Morgan huffed and moved over to the door sending her own annoyed knocks back to the knocker. They knocked back. She glared at the door clearly not liking the response as she yanked it open. Watching smugly as  **Peter** stumbled in. 

"Sorry?" He offered. She glared pointedly at him. 

"Peter tingle malfunctioning?" She mimicked opening the door again.

Peter stuck his tongue out at her. "Ok, ok, I was eavesdropping you got me." He surrendered under her steely glare. "It was… painful listening to this." He waved a hand towards Peter. "My own internal  _ teenage  _ debates verbalised. I asked you to keep blackmail to the minimum, underoos. And…"

"It's not our 'Peter tingle'!" Both Peters said in unison.

"Ok. That was creepy. Never do that again." Morgan stated matter of factly, glancing from one Peter to the other.

"That is good with me. That was creepy. Anyway, I am here to get rid of both of you. The tour of New York is still available. You wanted to see it pre blip now is your chance. Take it. Pick up lunch on your way back; number 5 extra pickles -"

"Squished down real flat. Like always, got it."

"Whilst that is gross, weirdo. Am I going to meet Mr Delmar?" Morgan's eyes lit up, she had heard stories of the legendary Mr Delmar and his sandwiches.

"Of course sweet pea. Gotta have the true New York experience that includes the best sandwiches in Queens."

"And why can't I stay again?" His young doppelganger challenged. Why shouldn't he be there, it was  _ his  _ future.

"Because… what needs to be said today it's not pretty. I know you can take it."  **Peter** shot down his younger's protests. "But it was ugly and to go through it was brutal and despite what historians say we didn't win. To have been on the battlefield and hearing it second hand is different. Morgan can tell you what she knows. I just- I don't want you to go through what I did. Not even through hearing it from me. And also, she is not going out alone, she'll get lost or kidnapped."

Peter studied the 24 year old. He could see whatever he was hiding haunted him, he really did just want to protect him. "Ok. I'll go."

**Peter** sighed in relief, the tension draining from his posture. "Thank you. Keep her safe, please but have fun and try to enjoy the day. Show her the people that's what she came back for."

"How do you know that?" Morgan accused.

"Because TONY told me." He reached into his pocket pulling out a watch, "it's not yours and it's nowhere near as high tech. It's actually just a standard 2017 Stark watch. Right now it's a prototype, that was going to be his."  **Peter** nodded toward his double. "Harley commandeered it and uploaded TONY to it this morning before he cooked us breakfast."

"How? He wasn't responding before I thought everything on or in my watch was fried, Kentucky style." She exclaimed, excitedly taking and examining the watch. "TONY? You there T?"

"Hey, bug. I'm sorry the upgrades to the watch slowed my safety protocols. A dominant piece of code caused the file to skip certain safety protocols, setting it off resulting in the program running itself. My fault, bug, I should have caught it."

Peter jumped a mile high, sticking to the ceiling when the watch started speaking. "That was Mister Stark's voice. Why does your watch sound like Mister Stark? You made an A.I with his voice?" He had to give the girl points, she was officially the first person who was neither surprised nor freaked out at seeing him on the roof. His double just looked highly amused.

Morgan smiled fondly, joining them on the bed. "Yeah… well, we finished him anyway. He was just a shell, not much more than a doodle."

"TONY is still young. He was a birthday slash coming of age present. Harley and I gave him life, she gave him smarts and helped him build his own personality. He's just over 2 years old and extremely intelligent. Almost his own person. People are less scared of the threat of A.Is going Skynet in our day in age."  **Peter** explained to his younger self who had returned to the bed. "Anyway. Couldn't let you go wandering round with no supervision, while he is extremely limited by the ancient tech he will keep us updated."

"So you want him to be my nanny?"

"Mo, I can think of a thousand different ways you could cripple this city in…"  **Peter** checked his phone, "under 4 hours and never get caught. And whilst we are your big brothers we have never been Big Brother. It's for your safety, Underoos will show you the city in a way you've never seen it before. Right now? You are not Morgan Stark: daughter of the most famous person in the galaxy. You're just another Jane Doe on the streets. Today you have something you've never had before, anonymity. I have no doubt you'll be safe. I do trust you and I know you can take care of yourself. It's a precaution. I- we grew up on these streets we know the dangers sometimes some backup is needed."

"Well then, day 1 of being a Jane Doe awaits me. I want to see everything." Her eyes lit up as she thought of something. "Can we go see Auntie May? She must be so young! Come on I want to see Auntie May!" Morgan started dragging Mini Peter toward the door looking so excited.

"Umm… Aunt May is in Kansas right now so you'll have to hold off till tomorrow, Morgan."

"Aww what? Why is she there?" The 12 year old whined. Sometimes it was easy to forget just how young she was but there are moments when it just shines through. Moments like now. She was vibrating with childish glee and the need to see and do new things. "Oh well, introduce me to Ned and MJ. Does she know yet?" She pondered aloud.

"No!" Mini Peter exclaimed at the same time big Pete sighed, "Yes."

"What?!" Mini Peter screeched, "she knows?"

"She's MJ dude. She is known for being omniscient. I think it's her superpower. She is waiting for you to slip-up or you tell her whatever comes first. I slipped up and she wasn't happy with me. My advice? Tell her. She's had my back for the last decade and is definitely someone you want in your corner. Let her in."

"But… but she could get hurt." Peter felt so conflicted. He thought by keeping who he was a secret he was protecting them.

"She'll get hurt whether you tell her or not. The world has many dangers. If she does get hurt it won't be your fault. I guarantee you, she can hold her own.  _ Trust her _ ." Peter started ushering them towards the elevator. "Now go! Be safe, have fun. Don't forget lunch. Lunch is at 1. Go be teenagers."

* * *

Showing Morgan around Queens was interesting. Outside of the tower, she seemed for lack of another word, she seemed paranoid. Checking alleyways, scanning corners, watching cars. Paranoid.

"What are you doing?" He asked after she glanced behind them for the tenth time. At this rate, they would never make it to the subway.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I just hadn't realised what being Jane Doe meant."

"Heh yeah, daughter of Tony Stark I doubt you get much privacy. Technically you don't exist so right now you're just another Tom, Dick and Harry. Must be nice."

"It's weird. I keep expecting someone to stop us. You know paparazzi, taking photos, asking questions. I live with the Avengers after all."

"Man, that must be cool. I mean how does that work? There a chore list? Thor does washing on Tuesdays but dishes on Sunday. That would be awesome."

"Thor doing dishes? Nah, he has never lived in the tower. I mean he visits but rarely stays. After well everything, he joined the guardians. He really just pops by whenever he feels like."

"He joined the who?"

"They're kind of like the Avengers for space or Space Cowboys. It depends on who you ask."

"That is epic. Space Avengers! Who are they?"

"Aliens mostly. Your standard bunch of misfits. Some assassins with a raccoon and a talking tree. They're awesome, Quill promised to take me to another planet when I turn 16 but Mom said no."

"A talking tree?! How?"

"I dunno, Shuri might. She spent a lot of time with Groot after the battle of Wakanda. I'm a computer person, I like circuits and code. Chemistry and Biology is your wheelhouse."

"Ok. What about this Battle of Wakanda? I still haven't heard what happened."

The mood darkened as they entered the subway. She looked sad, troubled. "It happened before I was born. I know it was hard on all of us. Every year the world stops to mourn that day. The Decimation. We get taught about it in class right next to the Holocaust, and WW1. Can we not talk about this here? It's very public."

Peter helped the younger girl on to the train. The subway terminal wasn't crowded but there was a fair amount of people around. "Nah we're invisible. Like you said we're John Does. This is New York nobody cares what we talk about."

"Still. It feels… disrespectful. And I don't know how to approach it with you."

"Ok." He understood. Some things need to be gone about in the right way. Their stop was coming up now. He was taking her to Times Square.

Morgan had obviously never been on the subway before but unlike most rich kids she never mentioned the smell once. Again kudos to her. She cheered up quick, that way younger kids do. She wanted to explore everything and he means everything, every bodega, every flower shop and 7/11, it was getting exhausting. He was starting to think she was avoiding standing still long enough for him to talk to her.

"Hey! You know if we keep doing this we're going to get arrested. People are going to think we're casing joints." He calls out to her as she ducks into yet another corner store.

"What's that?" She askes ducking back out.

"It means we're looking to rob the place and are checking the security in the stores. Trying to find anything of value."

"Why would we rob them? They have nothing of value."

"Most people do it for the 100 bucks in the register, cigarettes and alcohol are big motives too."

"But why?"

"To pay rent, feed your family, I don't know. There's a lot of reasons really. You've never had to worry about money, have you?"

"Not really. There was that one time when we went on a tech-free camping trip and you forgot your wallet and I only had 50 bucks on me. We had to make it last till Harley found us two days later. That included a place to stay the night. It was the worst hotel I have ever stayed in but that was the best camping trip I ever had. Only trip but that was beside the point."

"Why didn't you use a payphone?" He queried. It was the obvious choice.

"A what?" 

"A payphone." He glanced around looking for an example. There was an old fashioned one across the street. "Like that", he pointed. "You know? Put in money and you can call people. But most people use mobiles these days so maybe they went extinct." It was odd to have to explain this. Payphones had always just been there, a part of New York life. 

"Interesting. They just aren't around anymore, I guess. At least I've never seen someone use one. After the Decimation, a lot of things got dropped. Everyone was stuck to the essentials. I guess nobody cared to get them up and running again." She shrugged. 15 years later and the world was still recovering from that day. Some things, some services were just dropped. Too many more important things needed the manpower.

"Come on. Times Square is just two blocks away."

"I know. I grew up here too. I even attend Midtown. I may not have been toughened by its 'brutal streets' but I don't need a map."

"Then why am I giving you a tour?"

"Muscles. Nah my brothers are just hella overprotective." She took a deep dramatic breath as if she  _ wanted  _ to smell the awfulness that clung to the pavement. 

"This is so much different than the New York I know. It even smells different. Worse admittedly but it's surreal how much it changed. It  _ feels _ different. The people are smiling. Nobody looks at the rundown buildings in mourning; the damage isn't there to remind people of what was lost. The grief isn't here yet. Everyone is so positive. Even the  _ sun _ looks happier."

"What happened was bad wasn't it? If it affected people so much. When did you come from anyway?"

"2031. Yeah, things had been bad but were getting better. A lot of good came from it. We got connected to the Nova corp or what's left of it. They were hit pretty hard too. They're Space Cops basically. Earth became an intergalactic refugee camp. The Asgardians live in Norway and we took some of the Xandarians and Skrull in. We became part of something bigger." 

She said all this like it was the most normal thing ever. Like running an alien refugee camp was something you saw on every other street corner. This was crazy!

What were Xandarians? And Skrull? This was amazing and... terrifying!

"Xandarians and Skrull? What are they?" He asked excitedly. Loud enough to gather a few glares.

" _ Who _ , Peter. Who." She corrected. "They are not whats they are  _ whos.  _ Whilst not human they are  _ people _ . With families and civilisations. Some older than ours."

"Sorry." Peter was embarrassed and suitably reprimanded. Aliens on earth! So cool. He has so much to tell Ned!

"Xandarians came from Xandar, they held the Power Stone in their vaults. They were first hit in the Infinity Wars. They had a bigger repair job than earth did, more casualties too. Thanos went there first before moving onto Asgard. The Skrull are here for a different reason, another war or something. Whilst they were still affected by the Decimation they weren't big players in the Infinity Wars having nearly been wiped out by the Kree. The Kree aren't exactly the bad guys but were definitely not nice guys."

"That kinda makes sense. Have you met any of them?"

She smirked smugly. "Hello? Daughter of an Avenger! Our cousin slash sometimes sister is an Alien. Nebula is awesome. Absolutely terrifying… but awesome. She used to be an assassin. Dad freed her... kinda… She saved his life in the war. She taught you how to fight."

"She was an assassin?! No way!"

"Yes, way! She's the best! You're her favourite; a good strong fighter with a stronger will. Dad called her Bluebell." Morgan grinned before her smile dropped. "Let's come back through Times Square. Can we go for a walk in Central Park?"

The two of them were like two minutes away from the edge of the park so it didn't take long to get there. They wandered aimlessly for a couple of minutes before Morgan stopped under a maple tree. It was a tall tree with low branches. The tree provided plenty of shade, a welcome change from the heat that was beginning to blister in the sun. Somehow he didn't think that's why she had chosen this tree to stop under.

"This is the Peter tree. Dad would bring us here every year; on your birthday and Christmas and Thanksgiving." She smiled softly as she reached for the branches. "Nowadays I come here to read or sometimes just sit and think"

She picked her way over the ancient roots before dropping to her knees next to the trunk.

She stroked the unblemished bark. "He came out here on a frozen January morning, the day after I was born and carved our initials into its frozen bark. Peter Parker, Harley Keener and Morgan Stark. He tried to draw a heart around them but it took so many tries it looked more like a spiderweb. And if you knew where to look you could find his name hidden amongst the roots."

She turned around, she was smiling. Probably thinking of all the good times spent under the tree. She sat leaning back against the tree, motioning him to do the same. 

"Harley taught me how to climb in this tree. We would make up stories and play make-believe. My favourite was being Spider-man's sidekick; fighting crime with big brother Petey. I would leave you 'gifts' in the hollow under the roots. I was so upset when we came back one day to find other people had added their names to the web. It became known as the Spider-man tree. People came from all over the city to pay their respects and to say thank you for saving them or their families. One time when we came here I met a little girl caught when she was pushed off the George Washington bridge. She's my best friend now."

"I was dead, wasn't I? Or at least everybody believed I was dead. I'm not. I came back from the future with you." He didn't want to admit it but he was scared. Scared of what happened, scared of how this story ended scared of a lot of things. His heart stopped at her next words.

"You were." She hummed, "For nearly 5 years you were dead. Nobody thought it was possible for you to come back. The Vanished, The Lost. Whatever you want to call it. The ones who were killed by the Decimation."

"But, I came back. You got us back. One or the other. My double was kissing in the kitchen this morning, so there must be some kind of happy ending."

"Yeah, we did. You came back."

"What was the Decimation?"

Her mood darkened, this wasn't a happy story one she didn't even know all of. She knew only slightly more than what was taught out of the textbook.

"The Decimation was one of the last battles of the Infinity War and it's exactly what the name suggests. A group of alien terrorists invaded the earth. They belonged to Thanos or the Mad Titan. Thanos and his  _ children _ " she spat out the word as if disgusted by it, "were said to be invincible. All who had opposed him had lost. His mission was universal. To  _ kill half of all living things _ . With the decimation, he succeeded."

"I wasn't the only one who 'died' then was I?"

She shook her head, drying her eyes. "On Earth, 4.45 billion were killed. Of that, 3.75 billion were Vanished."

Holy Fucking Shit! that was a lot of people.

"His  _ children  _ were sent to New York to retrieve an infinity stone for their master. You, Dad and Doctor Strange fought them off but with the team in tatters all over the world, there wasn't enough of you."

"I'm sorry, the surgeon? The one who almost died like 3 months ago?  _ He _ helped us fight off aliens? Doctor Strange the surgeon?"

"Yes. Well. He's not a surgeon any more, he became a wizard. I didn't think you knew him yet."

"I read the news article on his car crash a couple of months ago. A wizard? Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. Anyway, the aliens took Strange aboard their ship when he refused to give up the Time Stone. Dad went to rescue him and you followed. Dad tried to send you home. You didn't listen. 'I can't be the friendly neighbourhood Spider-man if there's no neighbourhood." Morgan gave a sad chuckle.

"I don't know what happened on that ship or where you went after. But I know Dad came home a month later you didn't. I know Thanos got the Time Stone and headed to Wakanda. The Battle of Wakanda was led by Steve Rogers and the remaining Avengers with the support of King T'challa and his armies. They lost too and Thanos got the Mind Stone. Thanos murdered Vision when he took the Mind Stone. After that, he won. Snapped his fingers and half of the universe turned to dust. People just disappeared."

She picked up a leaf and started to shred it, staring off into space.

"When I was little there was this room down the hall nobody was allowed to enter. There were photos on the wall of a boy I had never met. He was my imaginary friend. The one from my bedtime stories. My Peter Pan. My big brother Petey."

That was the decimation. Afterwards, nearly 20% of the human population was still dead, even once Dad had brought everyone back and defeated Thanos. Earth recovered, mainly because we're humans and it is notoriously hard to kill us. We got through because we are Starks and we will always find the third option and if there isn't one we make it. That's what my brothers are doing right now; giving you guys the third option.

"What do you mean?"

"Going home might take a while and my brothers will stay longer if it will save even one life. Especially Dad's." She explained.

Now her tale was done neither spoke. It was a lot to take in, information overload. He died, Mister Stark died, the world ended. It really wasn't a bright outlook of the future to him.

"You ok? Look, I shouldn't have dumped this all on you at once. I'm sorry." She scrambled up from amongst the massive twisting tree roots. "I've ruined the 'tour'."

"No, you didn't. I'm fine. Let's just… get out of here. Still got an hour till we need to get lunch."

She frowned. He was really upset. She knew Peter and she knew he was barely holding it together. Her brother was right, maybe he didn't need to know. 

* * *

Peter had been silent ever since they left the park. Taking the metro to Queens, they still hadn't said a word. She was getting worried it wasn't like Peter to not speak. Even when he was wrapped up in calculations and deep in an experiment he was chattering on something; some obscure fact he'd heard, the latest R&D gossip, everything really. Her point was he was rarely not talking a hundred miles an hour. If he wasn't, he was usually upset or troubled. She knew what was wrong. Thing was... this time, she just didn't know how to fix it.

"Umm… let's not go this way." Peter tried to steer her away from the street they were about to take to get to Delmar's. She knew not to argue with Peter. His Spidey sense was usually fairly accurate if he said move you moved. It was often in your best interests to listen to him. That was until she saw  _ why  _ he wanted to avoid that street.

Sat on a bench with a book and a smoothie. Looking right at them was MJ. "Hey! Losers!"

Since altering their course had failed Peter tried to pretend he hadn't heard or seen her. Morgan, as always, had different plans. Dragging him straight at her. 

"No, no! Morgan! No! Come on!" Peter hissed still trying ineffectively to change course. Thankfully, MJ met them halfway.

"Hey, Loser! Who's the midget?"

"I'm babysitting her."

"Hey! You're not babysitting me!"

"Um, then what have I been doing all morning?" He sparked.

"I've been keeping you busy. I don't need babysitting. Hi MJ. What're you reading?"

MJ gave her standard response of showing the cover with her 'try me, I dare you' look.

"Animal Farm by George Orwell? Hmm, I liked his 1984."

"An intellectual midget. You have my approval. Where did you acquire her?"

"Acquire her?" Peter sputtered. "I didn't acquire her. MJ, you don't acquire children. Like I said I'm babysitting her."

"Uh-huh. Who are her parents?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Yeah, sure." MJ deadpanned. "Does it have to do with your 'internship'?"

"No. I mean YES! Yes, I have been asked to watch her for a couple of hours." He nodded unconvincingly. MJ gave him the  _ eyebrow  _ that clearly said 'I know that was a load of bull shit so cut the crap and start talking.' He was screwed.

Her brother was right. MJ did  _ know _ and watching Mini Peter try to deny it was painful. It was also clear he has a major crush on MJ. A crush that he was terrible at hiding. For the first time ever she wondered what would have happened if they had never broken up.

"Dear God, this is painful." She muttered before asking MJ to join them for lunch. She gave MJ her sweetest smile while throwing Peter a pointed glare. It was amazing how she could do both at once.

"Eh, I could eat." MJ shrugged, she was mildly curious where this might lead.

"Yay! We're going to Delmar's." She linked arms with both of them and started skipping,  _ skipping, _ down the street.

"Woah!... Ok, this is really happening. Kill me now."

"Mood." MJ agreed over her shoulder.

* * *

"Hey, Mr Delmar," Peter called out as they filed into the newly refurbished store. The bell jingling the door swung shut. The place looked nice. You would never have guessed it had been blown up 3 months prior.

"Hey! Mr Parker! What can I do for you today? And you brought friends."

The deli was surprisingly quiet for lunchtime but none of them really minded.

"Los mejores sándwiches en Queens, o eso me dice" Morgan boast proudly.

Mr Delmars face lit up, "¿También hablas español, pequeña?"

"Si. Mi hermano mayor me enseñó."

"Hold up. Morgan, you speak Spanish?" Peter looked flabbergasted. This little girl had a lot of tricks up her sleeves, apparently. Even MJ looked impressed.

"Si. She does very well too… great pronunciation. She was telling me how good you are for business. Muchas gracias, my friend. So, what's everybody having?"

"We'll get 2 number 5's squish them down real flat with extra pickles, a number 6 and a number 8- that's the BMT right?" Morgan took charge, she, like her mother was a born leader. She began ordering for the rest of the bunch back at the tower.

"Si."

"Yeah, so a number 8 and…" she turned to Peter; "what would Dad like?"

"I dunno. Why would I know? He's your Dad." He stated as if he expected her to know this. How could she? He had been dead for the past 8, nearly 9 years. She had just told him this.

"Then the closest thing to a cheeseburger you have. MJ what would you like? Here." She handed over a 50 from God knows where. How the hell did she have the current currency anyway? Maybe it hadn't changed but honestly, he doubted it.

"I'll get my own. You don't have to pay for me." MJ made clear.

"Ok. Whatever floats your boat." Morgan shrugged, she had learned a long time ago never to argue with MJ. Unfortunately, Peter had yet to learn this.

"Hey, hey. No. We'll pay. You shouldn't have to."

"Oh no." Morgan mumbled, "Always a chauvinist."

"Are you saying as a woman I cannot buy my own lunch?" MJ demanded. "You're indulging in the outmoded, misogynistic principles of that a woman should not buy her own lunch? We're past the 40's Parker. I can pay for my own food."

"N-no I didn't mean that. I only meant we had asked you to lunch, therefore, we should shout you." Peter stuttered. 

Dear Lord, what had he done?

"Ok! Mooch point, both of you's.  _ I am paying _ . MJ order." She snapped using her 'Mom' voice. She reserved it for when she really wanted people to shut up and listen. Worked like a charm. What could she say she learned from the best.

"Yes, ma'am." MJ heeded; "I'll take a 12, thank you, Mr Delmar." She turned and whispered to Peter, "I like her; you should keep her."

\--

5 minutes and thankfully no arguments later, they were waiting for Happy to pick them up. Morgan had managed to talk MJ into coming home with them to hear them out. It took some convincing but Morgan won in the end, (the deal breaker was an interview with Pepper Potts). She wouldn't have to wait long to get it, Happy had picked mom up earlier this morning. She hoped Happy wouldn't mind the extra passenger.

* * *

Happy was tired; he had been driving for hours. He had departed at dawn this morning to collect Pepper from JFK. As he dropped her off he was told he needed to then go to LaGuardia to pick up May Parker. He was headed back when Boss had text him asking him to collect Peter and the girl he was with at 1'oclock, on his way back from the airport.

When he had pulled up outside the dingy little Deli Peter was always gushing about and saw two girls instead of one he didn't bat an eyelid. One girl, two girls, Boss was being so cryptic about pretty much everything right now and he has had enough of trying to decrypt it all. Apparently, Tony was being weirder than usual with May too; he had called her saying something had come up and she was needed back here but had refused to tell her what was going on.

He snagged a park right next to the deli and watched as the three kids shuffled over. Thankfully there were enough seats, it was a bit tight but they fit. Morgan being the smallest was wedged in the middle. Happy was well known to be good with faces and the younger one looked awfully familiar, but he just couldn't seem to place her. Heh, never mind.

"Hey Peter, Tony said something big had happened and I needed to come home. What's going on?" May called from her seat in the front as Peter slid across to the far seat.

"As I said earlier, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Please just let Mister Stark do the explaining." He pleaded, he had no idea on how to tell her. He was saved as Morgan clambered in.

"Hey, Uncle Happy. Thanks for giving us a lift. I picked up a plus one, I hope that's ok?" 

Uncle Happy? What the hell? He gave the girl a quizzical glance "Whatever kid. Sit down. But no eating in my car!" 

"Thank you! MJ get in. You can come." She turned back to Happy, "Don't worry we ate while we waited. The rest is for the boys at home." Morgan waved for the older girl to hop in the car.

MJ hesitantly peered inside. The entire thing must look so shady. Getting picked up in a black Audi with tinted windows after being bribed by lunch… shady. She saw May Parker in the front seat then decided to get in the vehicle. "I want you all to know how shady this looks. My organs are not for sale. If we end up at some kind of secret facilities where they use us as test subjects I will blame you, Parker."

"Been there done that." He muttered, "Relax MJ we're headed to Stark Tower. Got to drop off lunch then Morgan wants to spill all my secrets. You're not the one in danger here."

"What? Why are we spilling secrets? Peter! You better not be wrapped up in anything dangerous. I don't think I can handle that." May hissed.

"May!" Peter whined "Ask Mister Stark. It's this one's fault anyway." He pointed at Morgan. May squinted at her but fell silent.

The rest of the car lapsed into silence. The only sounds coming from the car's vibrations. Peter was the first to speak, starting a mundane conversation with MJ, in an attempt to get May to stop eyeing him suspiciously. MJ was always the good conversationalist. They talked about the upcoming Spanish test and the most recent scandal between Mrs Warren (their chem teacher) and Mr Camber (calculus). They then moved onto things like government conspiracies MJ had dug up and the latest Buzzfeed Unsolved episode.

It took all of 5 minutes for May to interrupt with the question she had been dying to ask. "Peter, darling, who are your friends?"

"May, meet MJ. MJ, May. This" he gestures to the child who was dozing on his lap, "is Morgan. Tony asked me to babysit." He explained, tiredly. This whole day had just been weird.

It was all apparently very uninteresting to Morgan because by the time they reached the Tower she had fallen asleep. Somehow she had wiggled halfway into his lap effectively trapping him in his seat.

It wasn't long before they were pulling into the tower. "Morgan." He whispered, gently shaking her shoulder. "Morgan. Wake up."

Blearily Morgan opened one eye, lazily scanning her surroundings. She focused on him for a second before she just curled up tighter. "Hmm? Tired." She slurred. 

He had heard Mister Stark talking about the time travel making the travellers sick when they first got here so she was probably still recovering. Plus they had been walking all day and had worked through a lot of emotional talks. "Uh… a little help here guys?" 

May cooed and Happy looked unimpressed, MJ rolled her eyes. This was  _ so  _ going in her people in distress sketchbook. Spider-man: defeated by a 10 year old. He thought she didn't know but she did. She had eyes and working ears, plus Peter and Ned did not know how to whisper. It was a miracle nobody else had connected the dots.

"Morgan. Wake up you can nap upstairs." Peter tried again.

"M? Naps 'r for babies. Not a baby." Morgan sulked, becoming more alert. "Wasn't sleeping, just resting, my eyes" she yawned.

"Come on, Vamos. Your brothers are waiting for you. Gotta give them proof of life."

"Hmm."

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translations. Google translate is my friend so forgive me if it's incorrect. I'm a kiwi if we learn a language its French over here.
> 
> "Los mejores sándwiches en Queens, o eso me dice"  
> "The best sandwiches in Queens, or so he tells me"
> 
> "¿También hablas español, pequeña?"  
> "Do you also speak Spanish, little one?"
> 
> "Si. Mi hermano mayor me enseñó."  
> "Yes. My older brother taught me."


End file.
